Red River flooding closed schools in more than a dozen districts

Drivers on a flooded street
Drivers greeted each other as they made their way through a flooded street east of Harwood, N.D. Sunday, March 29, 2009.
MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson

Class resumes Monday in the Fargo and Moorhead school districts. Each district lost the last eight school days because of flooding.

But they're not the only ones.

Minnesota Public Radio News contacted districts along both sides of the Red River and found 13 that lost at least one day of school due to flooding.

Norman County West, in Minnesota, joined Moorhead and Fargo in losing eight days. But the Kindred, North Dakota district lost ten days - two entire weeks.

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School days off from Red River flood
This graph shows the days various school districts in the Fargo-Moorhead area lost due to the rising Red River flood water.
MPR Graphic/Steve Mullis

Some other districts did not cancel classes but let kids leave to help with sandbagging. The Climax-Shelly districts was open for business, but flooding closed roads and forced major detours for some staff and parents.

At one point, the entire town of Oslo was cut off by flooding. That left a dozen or so students unable to get to their school in nearby Warren, so they met instead in a building in Oslo.

Other districts that had flood days were: Central Cass, N.D. (7); Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, Minn. (6); Richland, N.D. (5); West Fargo, N.D. (5); Hope-Page, N.D. (3); Northern Cass, N.D. (3); Wahpeton, N.D. (3); Breckenridge, Minn. (2+); and Campbell-Tintah, Minn. (2).

There were also districts - like Wheaton Area, Browns Valley, and Barnesville, Minn. - that were able to stay open through flooding but had to close because of snowstorms that moved through the area.

The decision whether to make up days is left to local school boards in Minnesota. In North Dakota, schools need state permission to forgive lost days.