Got $6,300 a Year; Also Ran Saloon : Lowest-Paid U.S. Teacher Quits; Only One Pupil Left

Janice Herbranson fought back tears Friday and said goodby to her three pupils and their parents in the one-room schoolhouse where her $6,300 salary brought her the title of the nation’s lowest-paid teacher.

The 80-year-old school is closing. Two of her three pupils are graduating to seventh grade and a larger school.

Going to Alaska

Herbranson plans eventually to move to Alaska, leaving behind the school where she taught for 20 years and the saloon she ran to supplement her income.

“When I walked to school this morning,” she said, “I said a little prayer and said, ‘Why do I need to feel this way?’ It’s a beautiful day.”

Herbranson, 51, was identified as the nation’s lowest-paid teacher in a 1983 survey by the National Education Assn. Since then, she has received a $500 raise.

This ranching community of 50 people, situated 60 miles southwest of Fargo, said it could not afford to pay Herbranson more.

“I wish she wouldn’t have to” leave, said Kari Gruba, 11, one of Herbranson’s pupils. Kari’s 9-year-old brother, Kris, would be the only pupil left after summer vacation.

Herbranson was asked to stay and teach the one pupil, but she refused. Kris would be lonely by himself, she said.

The white clapboard schoolhouse sits at the end of a dirt road next to a pasture and across a baseball park from the town’s two churches.

Cooked Pupils’ Meals

Herbranson rang the schoolhouse bell every morning at 9. She cooked her pupils breakfast and lunch every day. She taught them piano also.

McLeod’s schoolhouse can stay closed for two years before hearings must be held on dissolving the school district, said Sheryl Dagman, Ransom County school superintendent.