Submitted photo
Students get off the bus on the first day of school Wednesday at Oriska Elementary. The Maple Valley School District realigned grades in its two elementary schools, so fourth- through sixth-graders now attend Oriska. The other elementary school is in Buffalo and takes kindergarten through third-graders.

By Jean Schlegel 

Maple Valley Elementary Schools have a new alignment this fall.
If the Maple Valley School District continued the way the students were placed in fall 2008, only 37 students would have been in grades two through six at the Oriska Elementary School this fall, with no students in kindergarten or first grade.
The Buffalo Elementary School would have had 19 kindergarten students and 84 students in  kindergarten through sixth grade.
In the alignment plan, students are distributed evenly between the two schools. About 60 students attend each school, for a total of 120 students in both.
Maple Valley Schools Superintendent Roger Mulvaney gave handouts explaining enrollment numbers for the school district at a public information meeting on July 14 in Tower City.
“The students in kindergarten through grade three are now housed in the elementary school in Buffalo and the students in grades four, five and six are in the elementary school in Oriska,” Maple Valley Elementary Principal Pat Johnson said.
This alignment first took place last spring when Oriska students were transferred to Buffalo since the Red Cross was located in the Oriska school. This was because of the flood in Barnes County when some residents were forced to evacuate their homes.

For full story, see Thursday's edition of the Valley City Times-Record.