The Barnes County North north-central campus in Rogers, N.D., was recently named a national Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.
The pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade school on Highway 1 between Jamestown and Valley City is the only school to earn the honor in North Dakota this year.
Only 304 of the nation's public and private schools out of 132,000 will receive the honor this year, the Department of Education announced.
Principal Daren Christianson said Friday that he and a former Title I teacher will go to Washington in mid-November to receive the award.
A presentation of the award and an open house will be held in late November or early December at the school, Christianson said.
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The school was nominated for the award due to its high test scores even as many of its students come from homes with low incomes, Christianson said.
"I think the students and the staff feel a certain sense of satisfaction. We really push hard" to improve learning and test scores, Christianson said.
Barnes County North has two other campuses: a pre-kindergarten through grade 12 school in Wimbledon and an elementary school in Spiritwood.
Water wonders
More than 1,700 elementary students participated in the 12th annual River Keepers' Red River Water Festival, making it the best attended edition of the festival to date.
The festival earlier this month brought to Moorhead's Hjemkomst Center students from 29 schools in Fargo, Moorhead, West Fargo, Harwood, Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, Lake Park-Audubon and Barnesville.
The Fargo North Environmental Club, Barnesville High School River Watch students and Concordia College students helped the attendees learn about a variety of water topics.
Through hands-on activities, the festival seeks to educate students to become good stewards of the area's water resources.
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Students taste water samples, "become" water molecules, build a mini-water treatment plant and play investigators to learn about the storm drain system.
Moorhead parade
Moorhead High School's homecoming parade begins at 4 p.m. Friday on 20th Street South. Parade participants will set out at 24th Avenue and march toward 12th Avenue. Parade floats will line up at 3:30 p.m. in the Minnesota State Community and Technical College parking lot at 1900 28th Ave. S.
Top talkers
The speech and debate program at Fargo South High School has been honored by the National Forensic League with inclusion in the prestigious "200 Club."
The award comes with the chapter achieving 200 forensics degrees last year and placing in the top 5 percent of National Forensic League chapters around the nation.
In addition, South students Matthew Budke and John Mitzel were named NFL All-Americans for the 2009-10 academic year.
Only the top 25 national point earners out of 112,000 NFL members earn the honor.
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Readers can reach Forum reporters Helmut Schmidt at (701) 241-5583 and Mila Koumpilova at (701) 241-5529
