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BEMIDJI - Eighth-graders at Bemidji Middle School are making a name for their school. After competing on March 7 in World Maths Day, an online math competition, two teams from the middle school placed first and second in the United States in the 11-13 age bracket. "Team 13" had 33,894 correct answers and finished 21st in the world in the 11-13 age category and was the highest placing team in America. "Team 14" had 22,573 correct answers and finished 46th in the world in the 14-18 age category and was the second highest placing team in the United States. During a recognition ceremony Thursd
Violin prodigy shares love of classical music
BEMIDJI - A shepherd's staff has been stolen and a local artist wants it returned. While driving downtown this winter, Al Belleveau, a local sculptor and sculpture installer for the Bemidji Sculpture Walk, noticed something was off about the "Shepherd" sculpture located on the corner of Third Street Northwest and Beltrami Avenue Northwest, near Tutto Bene. The sculpture, which depicts Jesus holding a staff and rescuing a lost lamb in a tempest, was missing the top part of its staff.
A community steward who had a familiar last name and a knack for curling has died at the age of 91. William "Chub" Naylor, son of the late Albert Naylor, who founded Naylor's Electric in 1920, died Saturday at Neilson Place in Bemidji. His funeral will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church in Bemidji. Visitation will be held from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at Olson Schwartz Funeral Home and one hour prior to the funeral at the church. Naylor was born Sept. 30, 1920, in Bemidji. He attended Central Elementary School and graduated from Bemidji High School in 1938.
Faced with making a tough decision Monday, Bemidji School District's Board of Education unanimously voted to expand J.W. Smith Elementary School's attendance area to keep Solway Elementary School from becoming too overcrowded. J.W. Smith's attendance area will be expanded farther west to include neighborhoods west of the airport. The change will affect residents in the area between Cardinal Road Northwest and Eckles Road Northwest, from U.S. Highway 2 to Balsam Road Northwest. Approximately 28 students in grades 1-5 would be reassigned to J.W.
Students in the Bemidji School District will have a spring break next year. The district's Board of Education unanimously approved having a weeklong spring break included in the 2012-13 school calendar. This follows the district's tradition of giving students a weeklong spring break every other year. But having a weeklong spring break means June 6 would be the students' last day of school.
After Solway Elementary School's enrollment topped 200 in 2010-11, school officials became increasingly concerned about the school's overcrowded classrooms, lunch room and hallways. After voters turned down the district's proposal to build a new elementary school last year, the Bemidji School Board now has a new proposal to solve the classroom space issue. It involves slimming down Solway's attendance area and expanding J.W. Smith's attendance area. The board plans to vote on J.W. Smith's attendance area at its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.
Russ Parsons, the food editor for the Los Angeles Times, was traveling from North Dakota to Duluth last summer when he stopped in Bemidji for a bite to eat. Craving a taste of the local flavor, the man known to his readers as the "California Cook" stopped at a place with a name too irresistible to pass up - the Minnesota Nice Café. Plus, the café was located a few steps from the Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues, which he found amusing. Parsons couldn't decide between the wild rice or blueberry pancakes, so he ordered both.
Staring down at the ice rink from the second floor of the Neilson-Reise arena, Inger Kroeplin could not believe so many years had come and gone. "The years I spent here... I mean, I practically lived here," she said. After 35 years of coaching figure skaters in Bemidji, Kroeplin has retired. Her efforts will be recognized during the second performance of the Bemidji Figure Skating Club's Fantasy on Ice show at 1 p.m.
Peter Biver and Rita Fehr, a figure skating pair who competed at the 2012 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in January in San Jose, Calif., will perform in Bemidji this weekend. The duo is the featured guest skaters at the Bemidji Figure Skating Club's Fantasy on Ice: Skating into Love show at 7 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday in the Sanford Center. Tickets are available at the door or from figure skaters and cost $7 for adults, $4 for K-12 students and free for children ages 5 and younger. Biver, 35, originally from Rice Lake, Wis., is a three-time U.S. Figure Skating gold medalist.