Original Research by School Decision on Peter Boe Jr Elementary School
Peter Boe Jr Elementary School sits in the heart of Mayville, a small agricultural town in North Dakota's Red River Valley. The school serves pre-kindergarten through fifth grade as part of the May-Port CG 14 district, which also draws students from Portland, Clifford, and Galesburg. Mayville itself is the largest community in Traill County and carries a dual identity: a quiet farming town shaped by the surrounding prairie and a college community anchored by Mayville State University, whose campus sits a short walk from downtown. The Goose River runs through town, and Island Park and the MayPort Community Center serve as civic gathering points. Publicly reported estimates describe a population that has been gradually declining or stagnating over recent years rather than growing, which gives the area a settled, stable character rather than one of expansion.
The school's enrollment is modest for its grade band, with a roughly even distribution across kindergarten through fifth grade and a small pre-kindergarten group. The student body is predominantly white, with small Hispanic and American Indian populations and a handful of students identifying as multiracial or Black. A relatively small share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, well below what many rural North Dakota schools see. Data on English learners and students with individualized education programs was not available, so those populations cannot be characterized here. A parent with specific questions about special education services or English-learner support would want to ask the school directly.
Academic results come from the ND A-PLUS assessment in its first year of administration, with new proficiency cut scores as well. Because of those changes, the state flags trend comparisons as not yet reliable, so there is no multi-year picture of whether performance is rising or falling. What the current results show is mixed. Third-grade math proficiency lands in a mid-range band, and fifth-grade math sits somewhat higher, while fourth-grade math is the weakest grade-level result, with proficiency in a lower band. English language arts follows a similar pattern across grades, with third and fifth grade in a moderate range and fourth grade somewhat lower. Science was tested only in fourth grade and landed in a lower band as well. Aggregated across all tested grades, math proficiency sits near the middle, English language arts somewhat below that, and science at the lower end. Participation rates were solid across grades.
The fourth-grade results in both math and English language arts stand out as the soft spot in the current data. Whether this reflects a particular cohort, the transition to a new assessment, or something instructional is not clear from what is available. A parent considering the school may want to look into how the school supports students at that grade level and what plans are in place for the coming year.
Housing in the Mayville area is affordable relative to state and national benchmarks. Typical home values sit well below the North Dakota state mark and roughly half the national figure, with recent year-over-year appreciation that has been notably strong. Rental data was not available. For a family weighing the cost of living alongside school quality, Mayville offers a lower-cost entry point compared with much of the state, with the trade-off of a community that is not growing.
The district brief turned up little in the way of recently reported changes to programs, staffing, or policy that would be relevant to parents, so there is nothing to relay on that front. No county-level comparison fact-set was available to position the school against its neighbors.
What emerges is a picture of a small, stable elementary school in a quiet college town, serving a mostly homogeneous student body with modest economic needs. Academic performance is middling in the current assessment cycle, with a clear dip in the middle grades that warrants attention. Families drawn to a close-knit rural community with a university presence and affordable housing may find this a reasonable fit, with the understanding that the academic picture is still settling under a new state testing framework.
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