McKenzie County School District Superintendent Steve Holen with The Flag’s Scott Hennen
WATFORD CITY, N.D. – As the North Dakota Petroleum Council gathers in Watford City for its annual meeting, local community leaders are highlighting how the energy sector continues to transform education and workforce opportunities in western North Dakota.
Dr. Steve Holen, superintendent of the McKenzie County Public School District, reflected on the deep ties between the energy industry and local public schools during an interview at the event. Now in his 22nd year as superintendent, Holen noted how crucial the partnership has been for providing stable jobs and supporting local families.
“Obviously, the industry is so critical to our community,” Holen said. “They’ve been so good to us as a school district, and we very much appreciate that relationship and what it’s provided for our families and our students.”
He added that energy jobs have created long-term generational benefits for the area: “All the kids that have been able to move home—and it was about good jobs. It was about being able to come back and have a good job waiting for you.”
Expanding local opportunities via the Bakken Area Skills Center
To give back and support the local labor force, the district opened the Bakken Area Skills Center, offering technical pathways and hands-on career training for high school students.
Holen highlighted a current building trades project where students are constructing a full-scale home on site. “Part of giving back is helping kids with their career pathways and directing them into areas in which there’s good employment,” Holen explained. “It’s our way of giving back to provide a workforce for the industry that’s given so much to us.”
Beyond trade skills, health career training at the Bakken Area Skills Center has become one of the district’s most successful offerings.
“By far, our health careers program is one of our highlight programs over at the center,” Holen said. “They’re getting their CNAs, and we talk about trying to get an LPN degree while in high school. The collaboration with local hospitals has been amazing.”
School enrollment stabilization
Following years of explosive population growth driven by the Bakken oil boom, district enrollment numbers have leveled off into a predictable pattern.
“For so many years, the in-migration outpaced the out-migration by substantial numbers, which is why our growth occurred like it did,” Holen noted. “Now we’re seeing it level off… We’re still in a good spot, and a couple of years now have been pretty stable.”
The district currently serves nearly 2,400 K-12 students, compared to around 200 total elementary students when Holen first started over two decades ago.
