Original Research by School Decision on Berthold Elementary School
Berthold Elementary School sits in a very small rural town in Ward County, part of the Minot metropolitan area but firmly rooted in prairie country. The town is compact, mostly residential, with civic and commercial life clustered along a traditional Main Street. Agriculture and energy-related work anchor the local economy, and outdoor recreation is close at hand, with hunting and fishing within a short drive. The community has stayed small and stable over the years, with little growth pressure or new development. For a family considering this school, that stability is the backdrop: this is a place where people know each other, and the school sits at the center of town life.
The school serves pre-kindergarten through sixth grade as a regular public school within the Lewis and Clark 161 district. Enrollment is small, with roughly a dozen or fewer students per grade in most years, though sixth grade is larger. The student body is overwhelmingly white, with a small number of Hispanic and multiracial students. The share of students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals is low, suggesting that economic disadvantage is less prevalent here than in many North Dakota schools. The district did not report English-learner or special-education counts for this school, so a parent whose child needs those services should ask the school directly about what is available.
State assessment results come from the current ND A-PLUS test. Because this is a new assessment with changed cut scores, the state flags that year-over-year trend comparisons are not reliable, so there is no meaningful prior-year baseline to judge growth against. What the current results show is a mixed picture across grades and subjects. In English language arts, proficiency ranges from middling in the lower grades to quite strong in sixth grade, with fourth grade also looking solid. Math is more uneven: fourth grade stands out as a relative strength, while third and sixth grade sit lower. Science results for fourth grade are among the school's best. Across all tested grades combined, roughly half of students are proficient in English, somewhat fewer in math, and a majority in science. These are middling results for the state, with real strength in upper-grade reading and science and a softer spot in math at certain grades that a parent may want to look into further with the school.
Because Berthold Elementary does not serve high school grades, there is no graduation rate to report, and that is expected for a school ending at sixth grade. No data on course access, staffing ratios, discipline, or attendance was available, so those dimensions of school life are left blank here rather than guessed. The locale brief notes that the campus includes a Berthold Public School Arboretum, a small touch that speaks to the school's role as a community institution beyond academics.
Housing in the Berthold zip code is moderately priced relative to national figures, with typical home values sitting below the national benchmark but above the North Dakota state median. Estimated monthly mortgage costs run higher than local rents, which is common in areas where rental supply is limited. The price-to-income ratio is below the national level, meaning local wages stretch further for housing here than in many parts of the country. For a family weighing the cost of living alongside school quality, Berthold offers affordability that larger Minot-area neighborhoods may not match.
Publicly reported information about the Lewis and Clark district's recent strategic priorities, budget decisions, or curriculum changes was thin, so this account does not include those. What is clear is that Berthold Elementary is a small, stable, predominantly white rural school with modest class sizes, a community-oriented setting, and state test results that run from average to strong in reading and science while math needs attention. It fits families looking for a tight-knit prairie-town environment where the school is woven into civic life, and who are comfortable with the trade-offs that come with a very small enrollment and limited publicly available data on student support services.
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