Original Research by School Decision on Selfridge High School
Selfridge High School sits at the center of civic life in one of North Dakota's smallest and most isolated communities. The school serves grades six through twelve and operates as a regular public school within the Selfridge Public School District, which also runs an elementary building for the younger grades. The two school buildings are among the few remaining institutions in a town that has lost most of its commercial footprint over the decades.
The community context is essential to understanding what this school is. Selfridge is a very small rural place on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Sioux County. Founded as a railroad town along a Milwaukee Road branch line, it depended on the railway to ship grain, livestock, and dairy. When the railroad was abandoned, the town lost a critical economic link. Population has declined steadily since the 1960s, and the trend has not reversed. The former bank building that later became a grocery store and then the post office was destroyed by fire in September 2024, leaving the town with even less commercial infrastructure. What remains are the schools, churches, a volunteer fire department, a senior center, and a city park. The nearest larger community is Fort Yates, the Sioux County seat, a short drive north on North Dakota Highway 6. Most daily errands and services require travel to a neighboring town.
The student body at Selfridge High School is very small, with only a handful of students in each grade. Every student enrolled qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, and the school is overwhelmingly Native American, reflecting its location on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. A small number of students identify as white or Black. The school's composition is a direct reflection of the surrounding community rather than a matter of choice or enrollment policy.
Academic data is largely absent from what was available. State assessment results were not reported, multi-year trend data was not provided, and no graduation rate appeared in the dataset. We looked for information on special education and English learner populations and found none. Civil rights data, course access details, staffing levels, and attendance figures were also missing. The grade band served by this school does include tested grades, so the absence of assessment results is not explained by an untested grade range. A parent considering this school will want to ask the district directly about state test performance, graduation outcomes, and what courses are offered across the secondary grades, since the available record does not speak to these questions.
Program offerings were not reported. No Advanced Placement, dual-credit, career-technical, or extracurricular information surfaced. For a school this small, course breadth is naturally limited by staffing and enrollment, and families should expect that specialized or elective options may be thin or dependent on distance learning arrangements. This is a characteristic of very small rural schools rather than a judgment on the school itself.
The district brief turned up no parent-relevant changes such as referendums, curriculum shifts, or staffing restructurings. No neighbor comparison was available to position Selfridge against nearby districts. Housing values and rent data were not provided, though the town's long population decline and minimal commercial activity suggest a soft housing market with limited inventory. Families relocating here would likely find few options and should expect a quiet, rural lifestyle centered on school, church, and community gatherings rather than town amenities.
What Selfridge High School offers is proximity and continuity in a place where those things matter. For families already rooted in this community, the school is a gathering point and a daily anchor for children from sixth grade through graduation. The trade-off is a very small peer group, limited documented academic data, and the need to travel for services and opportunities beyond what the school and town can provide. A parent weighing this option should contact the district to fill in the gaps the public record leaves open.
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