5 things to know today: Para-to-teacher, Dotas video, Home grown, Consultant budget, Savanna’s Day

The North Dakota Emergency Commission has allocated more than $4 million in federal grant money to help school paraprofessionals become certified teachers, a move intended to eventually help school districts in the state fill open teacher positions.

The announcement came Thursday afternoon, Sept. 7, from the state Department of Public Instruction, which noted that the funds — totaling $4.031 million — will “provide tuition assistance, supplies and on-the-job training for classroom aides who want to obtain the academic credentials they need to become licensed teachers.”

It comes as “many schools have been scrambling to find instructors,” the DPI said in the release sent to the state’s media outlets.

The state DPI “is the only education agency in the nation to have been awarded these Labor Department funds and intends to use them solely for teacher apprenticeships,” Kirsten Baesler, state school superintendent, said in the release.

Read more from Forum News Service’s Korrie Wenzel

Andrew Dotas said he can’t wait to be a cop again and has been asking his doctors repeatedly when that can happen.

About a year, he’s been told, as he continues to recover from his injuries

after he and two other Fargo police officers were shot while responding to a routine traffic crash in south Fargo on July 14.

Dotas’ training recruit, 22-year-old Tyler Hawes, was also critically injured,

while Jake Wallin, 23, died in the shooting.

Officer Zachary Robinson, 31, shot and killed the gunman, 37-year-old

Mohamad Barakat.

Dotas, 28, said his work at the police department is not finished, even though people continually ask why he would go back after such a traumatic incident.

“I love smiling at them and saying, ‘This is what I’ve always wanted to do. Why would I do anything different?’” he said in a recent video interview.

The Forum was not involved in the interview, which was conducted and edited into a 40 minute video by the city and released by the Fargo Police Department to local media outlets on Thursday, Sept. 7.

The department placed an embargo of 6 p.m. Thursday to allow media groups time to review and package the video content.

“This approach was chosen to share an impactful update with our community while also respecting Andrew’s recovery and his family’s privacy,” the police department said in a news release.

The Forum and WDAY-TV, both owned by Forum Communications, decided to share the video and its contents due to public interest, but have pursued independent interviews with the officers involved.

Read more from The Forum’s Robin Huebner

In August, it became legal in Minnesota for adults 21 and older to use, grow and possess cannabis for recreational use.

All of that comes with various limits and in the case of growing cannabis people can have up to eight marijuana plants at a time, though only four can be flowering at the same time.

That cultivation side of cannabis is what a new Moorhead business, Roots Hydroponics, and its owner, Logan Macrae, aim to help people navigate.

Located at 423 Main Ave. in downtown Moorhead, Roots Hydroponics will offer things like growing tents and lights as well as hydroponic growing systems and nutrient solutions.

As its name implies, Roots Hydroponics will be happy to help people cultivate cannabis in water, though Macrae said he advises beginners to start by growing cannabis in soil.

He said as people gain gardening skills, they can progress to customized growing mediums and, ultimately, water if they want to go that route.

Read more from The Forum’s David Olsen

The West Fargo City Commission authorized spending up to $100,000 on a consultant that will help the city find new accounting software to help with everything from utility billing to its overall budget and payroll systems.

Finance Director Heide Delorme received the unanimous go-ahead from the commission on Tuesday, Sept. 5, to recruit a consultant who will do the “leg work” of finding what the city’s needs and options are.

The software would be used for utility billing, budget work, special assessments, financials and potentially a different payroll system.

The finance department included $100,000 in its 2024 budget for the service, but Delorme asked the commission to begin looking for a consultant early.

“It’s a pretty long process of converting our software, which isn’t really fitting our needs anymore, to a new software,” Delorme said. “I’m hoping we can come in below this but we have to do a little bit of research on this and find out what is going to fit our needs now and also grow with us.”

Neighboring Fargo is also in the process of converting its accounting software, and plans to transition to a system used in Minot since 2000. Delorme spoke with both Fargo and Minot officials, who said the process of converting its software over 20 years ago cost upwards of $100,000.

Read more from The Forum’s Wendy Reuer

When Ruth Buffalo arrived to speak during the Native American Commission meeting on Thursday, Sept. 7, she took a moment to drape a red traditional dress made by a Standing Rock Sioux Reservation veteran across the podium.

The dress was made to honor Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a Fargo woman and member of the Spirit Lake Tribe, who was killed Aug. 19, 2017.

“We are asking for a permanent day recognizing Savanna,” said Buffalo, a former state legislator and a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation. “We want this proposed day to be at the same level as Indigenous Peoples Day, so no need to have an annual proclamation — a stamp for Aug. 9, recognized as Savanna’s Day, the day of her birthday.”

The request to the Native American Commission was for them to make the proposal to the city of Fargo to recognize Aug. 9 as Savanna’s Day. The idea originated from the Greywind family, Buffalo said.

On the sixth anniversary of LaFontaine-Greywind’s death this year, dozens of people including her daughter, Haisley Jo, gathered at MB Johnson Park in north Moorhead for

a walk of remembrance

.

Read more from The Forum’s C.S. Hagen