Also, Superintendent Kirsten Baesler stops by to chat about the ongoing challenges the state is facing when it comes to not just recruiting new teachers, but keeping existing teachers on the job.
According to a Monday, Feb. 7, news release from the office of Kirsten Baesler, the state school superintendent, the four-year terms of two members, Jill Louters, of New Rockford, and Danita Bye, of Tioga, end on June 30.
North Dakota likes to bill itself as a place that's friendly for business, and that's respectful of individual rights. But in these two cases, we see the Land Board taking an excessively acquisitive view of private property and cultivating a needlessly acrimonious posture with one of our state's most important industries. These matters shouldn't just fade from the headlines.
"This decline is significant, and it presents a challenge to all of us as educators in North Dakota,” State Superintendent Kirsten Baesler said in a statement Thursday, Oct. 7.
Every single member of the Land Board is a statewide elected official. We need to hear more from them, and less from Commissioner Jodi Smith Smith, and if their message is not a united one, so be it. At least that's the truth.
Gov. Doug Burgum raised the possibility of a new policy for the North Dakota Board of University and School Lands earlier this summer in response to statements made by the state land commissioner to reporters. Some watchdog groups and members of the press have expressed concerns that tighter rules could have "a chilling effect" for government transparency.
The Best in Class program is designed to provide 4-year-olds with skills they will need for elementary school and teach families how to best support their child's learning.
The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction is planning to use its latest COVID-19 relief funds to help school districts statewide expand summer school and invest in targeted tutoring programs for students who have experienced pandemic learning loss.
