The one-room school at the Northwest Angle
The Warrior Way at Angle Inlet School
Most students in the United States today learn about the one-room schoolhouse during social studies in elementary school.
But at the Northwest Angle in Minnesota on the Canadian border, students learn in a one-room schoolhouse.
About 65 miles north of Warroad, the small, close-knit community at the Angle Inlet is geographically isolated from the rest of the Continental United States. Landlocked by Canada and surrounded by water, the Northwest Angle is about 125 square miles of land. There are only about 50 year-round residents.
Students attend kindergarten through sixth grade at the Angle Inlet School. Then parents decide whether to homeschool or send their child on a 90-minute bus ride to Warroad to attend grades 7-12. The Northwest Angle lies within the Warroad School District.
Like elementary school students everywhere, some walk to school or ride their bike. But here, depending on the weather, students sometimes arrive by boat, snowmobile, or golf cart.
Inside the large classroom, there are desks, seminar tables, bookshelves, cupboards, whiteboards, bulletin boards, and windows with southern exposure.
Their well-stocked library is inviting.
This academic year is the first for Samantha Shoen as the teacher at the Angle Inlet School. But it isn’t her first year working at the school. She started a decade ago as a paraprofessional and substitute teacher.
Shoen first attended this one-room school as a student. She grew up at the Northwest Angle, completed high school in Warroad, and graduated from the University of North Dakota with a double major in English and History and a minor in Norwegian. Her own children attended the school.
The State of Minnesota and the Warroad School District invested significant capital recently into the future of the schoolhouse.
The State of Minnesota awarded the Warroad School District a $600,000 facility grant in 2018 toward the renovations of the existing schoolhouse, including two new bathrooms, and the construction of a 70’ X 30’ gym. Students enrolled at the time sent handwritten letters to their elected representatives requesting support for the bill.
I saw for myself on a visit to the school in 2021 how much had changed since 2017: it looked twice as big and brand new.
The addition serves as a multi-purpose room. When it is -35 degrees outside, the indoor space allows for more physical activity during the school day. It’s more than a gym: it’s a multi-purpose room. Families no longer crowd into the classroom for school plays and winter music concerts.
Elementary education at the Angle Inlet, like its sister school in Warroad, emphasizes the Warrior Way:
Be responsible
Be respectful
Be safe
The Warrior Way isn’t a curriculum, it’s a framework for supporting students based on shared values identified by the Warroad School District.
In the 2024-2025 district handbook, the values of the Warrior Way are spelled out as the Seven Grandfather Teachings of the Ojibway: Respect, Courage, Truth, Honesty, Humility, Wisdom and Love.
Elementary school students enrolled at the Angle Inlet School include children from Northwest Angle Band #33 First Nation in Ontario where there is no school. The First Nation pays their tuition to the Warroad School District.
Every April the Warroad School District decides whether to keep the Angle Inlet School open or not. The school closed from 1992-1994 due to low enrollment, but has been kept open when there were as few as three students.
Samantha Shoen graciously responded to my email inquiry this week as to the number of students currently enrolled. This year there are five.
Will students return to Angle Inlet School next fall? New border restrictions and punitive tariffs complicate the decision-making process this spring for the school district and parents.
Wow! I had no idea there still existed a one room school! I had a friend from Algoma who first taught in a one room school in Algoma. But have never heard of anything since. I wonder what will happen with Angle Inlet with the school funding cuts.
Wonderful school memories for me. I attended 1979-1982. 😍