Northern Cass and Essentia Health celebrate partnership

In partnership with Essentia Health, the Northern Cass School District #97 is excited to start the new school year with an additional resource dedicated to the health and well-being of students and staff.

Beginning Wednesday, Aug. 20, a virtual visit access point will be available to learners in grades 9-12 and staff at the Northern Cass School. Using the latest technology, the visit space will allow individuals to connect with a provider virtually and in a setting that reduces barriers to care, such as travel time.

Located in Hunter, North Dakota, the Northern Cass school is about 30 miles away from the nearest medical services. Throughout the 2024-25 school year, Northern Cass middle school and high school students missed over 8,600 classroom hours due to medical reasons alone.

"At Northern Cass, we believe that access to quality health care is essential for learner success," said Terry Baesler, new superintendent of Northern Cass School District #97. "By establishing a virtual access point clinic within our school, we are breaking down barriers to health care access and ensuring that learners and staff can attend medical appointments without missing valuable education time. It also provides families with an option to not take time off work to transport their children to and from appointments. We are excited to partner with Essentia Health on this innovative project."

This is the second virtual visit access point Essentia has helped introduce at one of its partner schools, the first being with Valley City Public Schools in the fall of 2024.

"As a leader in rural health care, Essentia understands the challenges presented in our rural communities, including access to the right level of care at the right time and as close to home as possible," said Kerry Carlson, vice president of operations for Essentia Health's west market. "The virtual visit space is just the next step to meeting the health care needs of our local students, while also supporting their educational goals."

In addition to the virtual visit access point, Northern Cass is excited to highlight a new learning pathway focused on the health sciences. Started in January 2025, this will be the first full school year for the pathway, which now has a dedicated classroom space thanks to support from Essentia Health and RDO Equipment Co.

"Last year we had 63 learners taking classes around the health sciences," explained Jennifer Johnson, health sciences educator at Northern Cass. "This year we have almost double that, with 104 learners across our middle school and high school grades."

"We are excited to see so many students interested in health care as a possible career," added Carlson. "We are honored to be a part of the Northern Cass community, and we look forward to collaborating further on this new pathway."

Northern Cass is welcoming learners and families back to campus with a back-to-school event from 1-8 p.m. today. Families will be able to meet educators, pay fees and sign up to use the new virtual clinic space. Earlier in the day, officials from Northern Cass and Essentia toured the health sciences classroom and the virtual visit access point.

Essentia has supported Northern Cass through athletic training services since 2021.