It's hard to believe that we are in our final month of the school year! We have many end of the year activities and celebrations to culminate the year as we celebrate our students and their hard work.

I want to personally thank the staff, students, parents, and school board for welcoming me into your school. It has been a pleasure to have been a part of this wonderful environment and I will greatly miss my time here!

Best wishes to the graduates and the students of DPS!

Wishing everyone a wonderful May!

Mrs. Bilden, Interim Principal

Mr. Keating has 11 years of teaching middle and high school math in Larimore, Hillsboro, and Manvel. His administrative experience includes five years as high school principal and three years as superintendent all in Midway. He has also served as an Administrative Consultant to Midway for two years. Jason has been married to Amanda for 13 years. They have a daughter, Cora, who is in the 5th grade, and a son, Jaydan, who is in 3rd grade. Welcome to the Drayton Family!

Shall the Drayton School Board continue to be given the authority to levy up to an additional 20 mills for the school general fund levy of Drayton Public School District No. 19 of Pembina County, North Dakota as permitted by Section 57-15-14 of the North Dakota Century Code, for the purpose of the School General Fund. The statutory school district general fund levy limitation is seventy mills on the dollar of the taxable valuation of the school district. The General fund is the primary operational fund for but not limited to expenses like salaries, benefits, supplies, utilities, and transportation.

Voters desiring to vote in favor of the proposition should mark a cross (X) opposite the words "For giving the school board the authority to levy up to 20 mills for the School General Fund Levy."

Voters desiring to vote against the proposition should mark a cross (X) opposite the words "Against giving the school board the authority to levy up to 20 mills for the School General Fund Levy."

Please see the table below showing testing data for this school year. Some 10th-11th graders chose to not take the test seriously which has unfortunately skewed the data. We are proud of the overall growth students have made this school year!

This year, Drayton Public School launched an exciting new leadership program for our 5th

graders called Bomber Buddies!

The Bomber Buddies program is designed to empower student leaders to help make recess a

safe, fair, and fun experience for everyone. These outstanding students assist with playground

equipment, help resolve small peer conflicts, and are a friendly face for any student needing

support during recess time.

Our 5th graders began their Bomber Buddy Flight School training in March 2025, learning

about conflict resolution, communication skills, teamwork, safety, and leadership. After

completing their training, they officially "took flight" as Bomber Buddies, proudly wearing their

Bomber Buddy vests during recess!

We would like to recognize the Bomber Buddies who have done an outstanding job leading

with kindness, responsibility, and pride in this brand-new program. Their efforts have helped us

live out our school theme: One School, One Team, Soaring to New Heights!

Way to go, Bomber Buddies! We are so proud of the amazing example you are setting for our

school community.

5th graders completed another Behavior Bingo card! This time we celebrated by ordering pizza and chicken strips from Hasting’s Landing for lunch and watched a movie in the afternoon.

In the month of March, the Drayton High School Library put on a "Best Bracket" contest, with students and staff voting on their favorite books after filling out brackets with their predicted results. The competition was tough, but the overall choice for best book was The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton. Winners of the bracket contest are pictured as follows: Jonah, Alyssa, Hunter, and Chey. Thank you to everyone who participated and congratulations to the winners!

Bomber Speech competed at the Region III tournament on Saturday in Hillsboro. Participants faced tough competition, but finished strong by each placing in at least one of their events. Stephanie Kissee earned a third place finish in Speech-to-Persuade, narrowly missing state qualification. Jonah Rarick was awarded a 6th place finish in Speech-to-Inform and an 8th place finish in Impromptu Speaking. Bomber coach Jamie Rarick was also honored with the CSTAND Region III Coach of the Year. This is voted on by coaches of the Communication Speech and Theater Association of North Dakota. The team would like to thank everyone who supported them throughout the season. We look forward to next year, Go Bombers!

Pictured: Stephanie Kissee and Jamie Rarick following awards. Jonah Rarick pictured separately due to track at MPCG.

Thank you to everyone that attended and to those that helped make this such a successful event!