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School and District Profile
S C H O O L A N D D I S T R I C T P R O F I L E
The Ogema Elementary School is located on the northwest corner
of U.S. Highway 59 and County Highway 18, in Ogema, MN which is in the northwestern
corner of the city (Figure 8). As of March 21, 2016, the school serves grades PreK-4 with a school enrollment of 252. The breakdown of students per grade is shown in Table 1 below. 79 percent of the students are Native American and
approximately 75 percent of students are eligible for free and reduced costs meals.
Figure 9: The front entrance to the Ogema Elementary School.
Table 1: Number of Students per Grade (School Year 2015-2016)
Grade Size PreK 32 K 56 1st 42 2nd 43 3rd 45 4th 34
The WOWE School District itself is very large, encompassing around 400 square miles in Becker and Mahnomen Counties. A small portion of the district is on the south east portion of Norman County and lies outside the White Earth Nation Indian Reservation. The district is roughly 58 miles from east to west and 18 miles north to south and reaches out into a number of townships and unincorporated lands, as far as 44 miles away from the school (Figure 11).
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Figure 10: A close-up of the Ogema Elementary School, grounds, and its immediate surroundings.
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Figure 11: The Waubun-Ogema-White Earth School District, Ogema City Limits, Ogema School location and concentric radii from the school location.
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WOWE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRI CT MISSION
The mission of the Waubun School District, a collaboration of communities and culture, is to prepare our students to be responsible citizens and lifelong learners in an ever-changing world.
REWARD SCHOOL
The Ogema Elementary School is a leader in school performance. For three consecutive school years (201213, 2013-14 and 2014-15) the school was designated as a Reward School. This designation means the Ogema Elementary School was in the top 15% of all schools in the state during those years according to the Multiple Measurement Rating (MMR) from the Minnesota Department of Education. The rating is a 1 to 100% for all schools in the state and includes data on proficiency, growth, achievement gap reduction and graduation rates.
WOWE Public School District Student Transportation Safety Policy was first adopted in 1995 and last revised in 2015. The policy states, “The purpose of this policy is to provide safe transportation for students and to educate students on safety issues and the responsibilities of school bus ridership.” As such, this policy is focused on transporting students to school via school buses. The policy states that “riding the school bus is a privilege, not a right.” However, there are also no specific guidelines regarding busing for students living within safe walking and biking distance to school as defined by MnDOT’s SRTS “walk/bicycle zone” concept (See Chapter 2) nor are there guidelines for students, parent, teachers and administrators for those for students who choose to walk and/or bike to and from school..
The complete WOWE Student Transportation Safety Policy can be found in Appendix F and online at http://www.waubun.k12.mn.us/.
WOWE PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT WELLNESS POLICY
The WOWE Public School District adopted a wellness policy that became effective after June 30, 2006 and was then revised on September 15, 2011. The superintendent or designee will ensure compliance with the wellness policy and will provide an annual report of the school district’s compliance with the policy to the school board. The purpose of the policy is to “assure a school environment that promotes and protects students’ health, well-being and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating and physical activity. ” More specifically, the guidelines outlined for physical activity are as follows:
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1.
“Students need opportunities for physical activity and to fully embrace regular physical activity as a personal behavior. Toward that end, health education will reinforce the knowledge and selfmanagement skills needed to maintain a healthy lifestyle and reduce sedentary activities such as watching television; 2. Opportunities for physical activity will be incorporated into other subject lessons, where appropriate; and 3. Classroom teachers will provide short physical activity breaks between lessons or classes, as appropriate.”
Also of note, the wellness policy states that the district “will support parents’ efforts to provide their children with opportunities to be physically active outside of school.” The policy does not directly outline walking and biking to and from school as a means to achieve this goal.
With the adoption of the physical activity guidelines noted above, the WOWE Public School District recognizes the health and academic benefits of being physically active. The complete WOWE Public School District Wellness Policy can be found in Appendix G and online at http://www.waubun.k12.mn.us/. .
The WOWE Public School District Health and Safety Policy was first adopted in 2012 and last revised February 2015. It is a best management practices document regarding the management and operation of the school district physical plant to optimize the health and safety of students, faculty, staff and visitors alike. It is evaluated to ensure that no issues related to SRTS are contained within.
The complete WOWE Public School District Health and Safety Policy can be found in Appendix H and online at http://www.waubun.k12.mn.us/.
OGEMA CITY SIDEWALK ORDINANCE / REGULATIONS
No specific sidewalk regulations could be located for the City of Ogema.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Policy recommendations to improve SRTS can be found in Chapter 9 in the Encouragement section and with further policy recommendations in Appendices D and E.
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