Prairie Rose Elementary School

With enrollment approaching 500, Prairie Rose is Dickinson, ND’s largest elementary school–and numbers will not be decreasing anytime soon. The population of Dickinson continues to grow in the wake of the oil boom, prompting district leaders to consider how they will continue to serve students.

Prairie Rose Elementary School joined the North Dakota Full Service Community Schools Consortium (NDFSCS) in December 2022 along with their neighbors at Heart River Elementary, making Dickinson the first district in the state to have two full-service community schools.

After spending eight years teaching at the middle and high school level in Dickinson, Kim Goodall was beginning to feel the effects of burnout. So when the opportunity arose to work with students and schools in a new capacity as Site Coordinator, she jumped at it.

“This is soul work,” she said. 

Principal Nicole Weiler believes that Goodall’s experience working with staff, students, and families in the district make her the perfect person to bridge the gap between the school and community. 

“Her passion shines through, and I appreciate that she has that reference as a former educator in our district,” Weiler said. “She knows our community well enough to understand the needs that are happening.”  

Goodall has spent her first few months as Site Coordinator identifying partners in the two pipelines that Prairie Rose has identified as top priorities: mental health and family engagement. In May 2023, Prairie Rose and Heart River Elementary Schools both implemented virtual wellness services through the North Dakota eCare School Health Program. This partnership allows students to receive safe, effective care from a registered nurse via telehealth. Goodall is also identifying opportunities for continued programming to support behavioral health.

Like many schools across the nation, Prairie Rose has seen a drop in family engagement since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We’re really trying to open those doors and welcome people back in, let them know that they’re welcome and we want them to be a part of this community,” Weiler said.

One way that Prairie Rose is working to increase family engagement is through events, such as the Dive into Books Literacy Carnival, which was held in May in collaboration with Heart River Elementary.

“We created a low-stakes environment for our families to come in and engage in a discussion of literacy and how important it is for kids to be reading through the summer,” Weiler said. 

In addition to forging new partnerships, Weiler also hopes to build upon initiatives started by social workers at Prairie Rose: partnering with High Plains Dental to provide dental care,  distributing food through the BackPack program, and working with Sanford Health to coordinate flu shot clinics.

“We’re trying to accommodate some of those pieces that families might not necessarily know how to capitalize on,” Weiler said. “We’re offering that through our doors.”