The Bemidji School District facilities will be closed for the remainder of this week as staff prepares for a possible shift to distance learning. According to a message sent to district families, the district is struggling to staff buildings due to high rates of illness among staff, for both COVID and flu. District staff who…
Bemidji and Cass Lake Bena schools, among others across the state, are taking an extra day off for the holiday break today. Bemidji Superintendent Tim Lutz said Thursday that the district’s “ability to maintain the capacity to operate our schools is being greatly strained.” Lutz noted that staff absences, a lack of available substitutes, and…
The Bemidji School Board’s monthly COVID-19 update appears to show slowly improving numbers. Superintendent Tim Lutz said that student absences due to COVID are down to a third of what they had been a month ago, and minimal staff absences for COVID were reported in the last week. County-wide, COVID numbers are slowly declining. Lutz…
The Beltrami County Board of Commissioners discussed possibly terminating the three-year lease of the AWCL charter school. AWCL has leased space in the Beltrami County Health and Human Services building since 2019, recently renewing their previous two-year lease to a three-year lease in July. The board seemed unanimous in their wish to keep the taxpayer…
The Bemidji School District and local law enforcement are aware of a national trend on TikTok encouraging school violence today. Beltrami County Sheriff Ernie Beitel said in a release that his office is not aware of any known or identified threats relating to this trend as credible but will have extra patrols in school zones….
The Bemidji School Board will meet for a special work session this week. Superintendent Tim Lutz says the board will discuss possible changes to the high school’s block schedule during a work session Wednesday, which will not be televised or livestreamed. The block schedule adjustment was discussed earlier this year as a possible cost-saving measure,…
The George W. Neilson Foundation awarded $25,000 to support graduates of the Bemidji Career Academies as they start attending Northwest Technical College next year. The Bemidji Career Academies works with high school students to build skills transferable to the workplace, with many courses that align with program areas at NTC. “The NTC Foundation began a…
The Bemidji School District and local law enforcement continue to investigate a violent social media page authored by an unnamed student. The page was called “BHS.Hit.List” on Instagram. The site has since been taken down and the student was identified. This announcement came Friday afternoon, with an update Saturday that the student was identified. Officials…
Debate team, from left: Misha Montgomery, Maya Lindquist, Amy Frenzel, Moraya Holleman and Heather Lueth. Bemidji High School’s debate team placed second at the Northern Lights National Qualifying Congress in Robbinsdale this weekend. Senior Amy Frenzel qualified for the National Congressional Debate Tournament in June. Amy is Bemidji’s second national qualifier in Congress, with Bemidji’s…
Bemidji School Board Member Jeff Haack resigned during the board’s meeting Monday. During the last portion of the meeting, Haack said he wanted to focus more time and effort on his children and on the Bemidji ISD #31 Foundation. Haack said last night’s meeting would be his last. Haack was last elected to the board…
