North Dakota

Chuck Haga: Tough decisions loom for school officials in Grand Forks

Published

2 years ago

March 16, 2024

Chuck Haga: Tough decisions loom for school officials in Grand Forks

A friend discovered some old scrapbooks recently, the pages filled with yellowed clippings of newspaper stories from 40 to 50 years ago – Herald stories about Grand Forks County Commission proceedings, mostly.

Some of the stories carry my byline.

I wish I could go back in time with a sharp No. 2 lead pencil and edit those stories – tighten them mostly, and eliminate some of the government jargon.

But one of the clips, a column that ran in 1985, reads pretty well today, I thought. It’s about teachers and schools, budgets and priorities, and when I finished reading I smiled and said, “Yeah!”

I don’t envy members of the Grand Forks School Board, facing a budget deficit today that apparently will require tough decisions. Who goes? What gets cut?

At the newspapers where I’ve worked, I never could understand why some of the best journalists wanted to trade the reporter’s pen for a manager’s responsibilities. Sure, the pay was modestly better, and you might get to shape the overall mission and quality of the paper. You wouldn’t get calls at midnight with orders to race off somewhere to cover a tornado or school shooting.

But as a manager, you might get handed a list of names, including names of friends, and told to decide where to cut. Move the scene from a newsroom to an elected public body and those decisions must be made – should be made – in the glare of public scrutiny, with that splintered public demanding competing solutions.

Grand Forks school administrators say the district must cut the equivalent of about 50 full-time staff positions to deal with a coming budget deficit. Some cuts under discussion would involve teachers, including music educators,

the Herald’s Joshua Irvine reported last Saturday

. The contemplated music cuts, especially, rankled many in the community,

and scores of people – including students – registered their dismay

at a Feb. 26 board meeting. They also objected to the “surprise” disclosure of tentative plans.

As I said, I don’t envy school officials the decisions they’ll have to make. I don’t know enough to offer alternatives. Nor do I care to join in the blame game regarding past decisions (or indecision).

But like most of you, I care about our schools and their mission, feelings I expressed in that column that ran in the Herald on Oct. 17, 1985, as more than 3,000 teachers converged in Grand Forks for a state conference.

“These must be confusing times for teachers,” I wrote back then. “They hear us demanding accountability, professionalism, high competence in their fields and deep caring for our children. But they wonder how much we truly value them when they look at their paychecks.

“They hear many of us preaching that traditional values must be nurtured, or at least not undermined, in the classroom. But they know that tolerance of diversity and respect for law are two of our most fundamental values.”

The teachers in town that week hadn’t asked me how I thought they should go about their jobs, but I told them anyway “because I had teachers who encouraged me to speak up.”

I spoke up then for reading and writing, for history and geography and music and art.

“The ability to read and write is fundamental to citizenship in a democracy. It should be taught in every class. In years to come, I want to be governed by a majority that has read and understood ‘The Grapes of Wrath,’ ‘1984’ – and the U.S. Constitution.

“I want neighbors (in 20 years) who understand why ugly, offensive speech must be protected … why people must be presumed innocent until they are proven guilty by due process of law.

“Teachers are right to encourage creative self-expression. It is a vital part of communication. So is the punch of irony and the poetry of allusion. But we also need the common ground of standardized spelling, grammar and syntax if we are to understand each other.”

I was speaking to taxpayers as much as I was to superintendents, school board members and teachers. Don’t slash budgets, pile on extra duties and then complain that the kids aren’t learning.

“Long before they receive a diploma, students should be able to locate (Russia) on a map,” I wrote. “It’s important that they know where Israel is – and how it came to be. … They need to understand why the people of Central America envy, fear and distrust us. They ought to appreciate the awful consequence of drought, famine and war in Africa – and want to do something about it.

“They need to learn that their nation has made mistakes – and that it will do wrong again, in their name. (They must not) equate criticism with disloyalty. They should know Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King – and their words. But teach them, too, not to be so cynical that they can’t see and value the good in their country.

“Teach them that two plus two are four and the capital of Uruguay is Montevideo, but remember that at bottom you are encouraging them to think and feel, weigh and judge, see and hear and do, reach and touch and be touched.”

Then as now, I felt a violin concerto had as much to teach us as a chemical equation, a hockey program or principles of accounting.

Chuck Haga had a long career at the Grand Forks Herald and the Minneapolis Star Tribune before retiring in 2013. He can be contacted at crhaga@gmail.com.

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North Dakota

Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits

Published

52 minutes ago

June 25, 2026

Press Room

Challengers declare victory after ND Supreme Court rules against Legislature’s attempt to alter term limits

BISMARCK — A constitutional ballot measure to amend the state’s term limits law as proposed by the Legislature will not appear on November’s ballot, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled Thursday, siding with petitioners who argued the Legislature exceeded its authority and violated the state constitution in proposing the changes.

“The people’s voice was heard,” Grand Forks County Commissioner Terry Bjerke said in reaction to the news.

Bjerke was a member of the sponsoring committee behind the successful 2022 effort to pass a term limits initiative, which amended the state constitution by capping legislative term limits to eight years in the House and eight years in the Senate. The amendment, which became article XV of the state constitution, also included a clause barring the Legislature from making constitutional changes to term limits.

During the 2025 session, however, lawmakers narrowly approved Senate Concurrent Resolution 4008, in which the legislature proposed Constitutional Measure 1, a ballot measure to amend the term limits language to allow legislators to decide in which chamber they want to serve their 16 years, and to repeal the clause limiting the legislative assembly’s authority to propose an amendment to alter or repeal term limits.

Bjerke and former Minot legislator Oley Larsen brought the lawsuit challenging the validity of the Legislature’s action in January, and the state Supreme Court

heard oral arguments in the case

this spring.

“Those term limits may only be altered by a measure proposed by the people rather than the Legislative Assembly. And yet a few years later, the Legislative Assembly is doing what they are prohibited from doing,” attorney Zachary Wallen argued on Bjerke and Larsen’s behalf.

Petitioner’s attorney Zachary Wallen, right, jots down notes for a rebuttal during a North Dakota Supreme Court hearing dealing with a term limits ballot measure on Thursday, April 2, 2026.

Tanner Ecker / The Bismarck Tribune

The Legislature’s attorneys argued the clause prohibiting legislative proposals to alter the constitutional term limits language “infringes on our republican form of government” by “limiting the people’s ability to vote on amendments proposed by their elected officials.”

Justice Jon Jensen seemed skeptical of that argument during the April 2 hearing, questioning whether a second vote was appropriate.

“The public did speak on this. The public spoke on it when it passed the original constitutional amendment and they said, ‘Legislature, you don’t even get to propose a change.’ They have already spoken on it,” Jensen said. “You want a second shot, or a second bite at the apple, not a first one, a second.”

In Thursday’s ruling, all five justices sided with Bjerke and Larsen.

“We … conclude the Legislative Assembly’s adoption of S.C.R. 4008 violated N.D. Const. art. XV … and declare S.C.R. 4008 and Constitutional Measure 1 void … We enjoin the Secretary of State from placing Constitutional Measure 1 on the November 2026 general election ballot,” the ruling said.

Bjerke thanked the legal team that worked on behalf of their lawsuit, and said he was grateful the court reached the conclusion it did.

“I’m thrilled that what the people voted on and approved has been validated,” Bjerke said.

He added that the Legislature had “multiple opportunities” to address term limits prior to 2022’s initiated measure and chose not to, and gave a nod to the country’s coming milestone and the process by which voters expressed their support for term limits.

“We’ve lasted 250 years,” Bjerke said. “I have two words for those elected leaders who think they aren’t: everyone’s replaceable.”

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North Dakota

Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive

Published

11 hours ago

June 25, 2026

Press Room

Fargo woman convicted in North Dakota fraud case now faces charges in Minnesota: A deeper dive

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – A North Dakota woman who was sentenced to 180 days in jail in Cass County for defrauding healthcare providers and Medicaid programs is now facing additional fraud charges in Minnesota.

Christine Marie Pryor, 55, pleaded guilty in November 2024 to theft by deception involving more than $50,000. She was sentenced to first serve 180 days with a 3-year sentence suspended. She received credit for 44 days already served.

Pryor was ordered to pay $82,584.78 in restitution to Southeast Human Services in Fargo, where she worked between 2018 and 2019.

How the scheme unfolded

According to court documents, Pryor worked at multiple healthcare facilities in North Dakota and Minnesota between 2018 and 2023, using the identities and credentials of three licensed professionals without their knowledge. She submitted fraudulent Capella University diplomas and transcripts to gain employment.

Investigators say Pryor admitted she searched state licensing websites for therapists who shared her first name, then used those therapists’ last names and license numbers when applying for jobs.

At Southeast Human Services, where she worked as a Licensed Addiction Counselor, Pryor earned $55,584.82 while providing therapy services to approximately 150 patients. She also opened her own counseling center, NIAM Brain Injury Center, in Fargo between 2020 and 2021, and worked at The Lotus Center in Moorhead, Minnesota, from 2021 to 2023.

Court documents say the three licensed professionals whose identities were used told investigators they had no knowledge of Pryor’s actions and did not give her permission to use their information.

Two additional charges against Pryor in North Dakota, unauthorized use of personal identifying information, were dismissed on motion of the state.

Additional charges in Minnesota

Pryor is also facing charges in Minnesota. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Tuesday charges against Pryor in Clay County District Court for six theft offenses and six identity theft offenses related to defrauding Minnesota’s Medicaid program of more than $150,000.

According to the Minnesota complaint, Pryor claimed to provide psychotherapy and alcohol and drug counseling services to Medicaid recipients despite having no license or credentials to do so. Prosecutors allege she used the credentials and identities of three licensed professionals while claiming to provide Medicaid-funded services to 169 clients.

The Minnesota charges were filed as part of National Health Care Fraud Takedown Day, a joint effort involving the Department of Justice and more than 40 state Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

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North Dakota

NCAA Set to Change Unpopular Football Rule Just in Time for North Dakota State’s FBS Jump

Published

21 hours ago

June 24, 2026

Press Room

NCAA Set to Change Unpopular Football Rule Just in Time for North Dakota State’s FBS Jump

North Dakota State playing in the FCS playoffs and College Football Playoff in back-to-back years? It’s likelier than you think.

That’s because on Wednesday, according to a report from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, the NCAA Division I cabinet voted to repeal a rule that effectively barred teams transitioning from FCS to FBS from playing in postseason games in their first FBS seasons. The Bison are making that move along with Sacramento State in 2026.

The reported change has been a long time coming; the rule has hampered teams from immediate bowl eligibility for decades. Its good intentions of dissuading teams from rashly making the FCS-to-FBS leap have been rendered obsolete in recent years by the fact that programs generally arrive in FBS more prepared than ever before.

Consider the number of new FBS teams that have had to work within the provision in the past decade alone

Curt Cignetti’s James Madison program was impacted by the rule preventing teams transitioning up from FCS to play in the FBS postseason. | David Yeazell-Imagn Images

That list includes: Liberty (home for the holidays at 6–6 in 2018), James Madison (8–3 in 2022 under coach Curt Cignetti, and barely able to play in a bowl at 11–1 in ’23 due to a lack of bowl-eligible teams), Jacksonville State (8–4 in ’23 before backing in like the Dukes), Missouri State (7–5 in 2025, also backed in) and Delaware (6–6 in ’25, ditto).

James Madison in particular became a cause célèbre in ’23 because it started the season 10-0, climbing as high as No. 18 in the AP Poll in mid-November. Then-Virginia attorney general Jason Miyares bandied about suing the NCAA before the Dukes lost 26–23 to Appalachian State, an event that caused the program to back off and accept a bid to play Air Force in the Armed Forces Bowl. James Madison lost that game 31–21, by which time Cignetti had left for Indiana.

There was a time when the FCS-to-FBS jump was an imposing one, and the NCAA did not want to incentivize making it lightly—not even a proud Florida A&M program could make a mid-2000s attempt at a jump stick. However, the Flames, Dukes and other teams have shown it’s not so great a climb for programs with the right resources and management.

Now the Bison and the Hornets stand to benefit.

How far can North Dakota State and Sacramento State go in the near term?

The Bison opened 12–0 last year before a shock loss to Illinois State in the FCS playoffs’ second round, so that question may answer itself. North Dakota State does not play a single Power 4 team—a potential strength-of-schedule albatross if it has designs on really surging. A potential roadblock: the fact that the Bison have to visit the Mountain West’s two favorites, UNLV (Oct. 10) and New Mexico (Oct. 24).

It’s a different story for the Hornets, a 7–5 squad a year ago whose move to the FBS is widely seen as a gamble on their growth potential. Sacramento State also does not play a major-conference team, but has a breakneck travel schedule ahead of it—the Hornets will visit Ypsilanti, Mich.; Bowling Green, Ohio; Muncie, Ind.; Mount Pleasant, Mich. and Honolulu. Combine that with a first-year coach—Oakland native and ex-MC Hammer choreographer Alonzo Carter—and it could be a long FBS debut in California’s capital.