North Dakota
Northwest North Dakota's County Teachers of the Year
WILLISTON, N.D. (KUMV) – The North Dakota Department of Public Instruction has named 49 teachers from 48 counties County Teachers of the Year. They were nominated by their peers and scored by a committee of education professionals. KUMV-TV’s Michael Anthony had a chance to speak with the winners in the northwest part of the state.
Williams County – Kari Hall, Williston High School
Kari Hall is a social studies teacher at Williston High School and has been educating students for 25 years. Her classes include U.S. History, Psychology, and a Holocaust class that she started about five years ago.
“I’m a tough teacher. I’m not always a fun and games teacher. I have expectations and sometimes that’s hard, but in the long run I hope my students realize that I’m prepping them for the real world,” said Hall.
As a struggling learner herself, Hall says she became a teacher to better help others.
“I remember when I figured it out, that learning could happen for anyone, so I always investigated that possibility of how a student and a teacher can work together,” said Hall.
When asked about winning the county teacher of the year award, Hall credits the people who helped her develop as an instructor.
“It takes an army to build a teacher,” Hall said.
Hall says her hope for her students once they leave her class is that they become somewhat knowledgeable about the world around them.
“If they don’t learn about history, they may never learn about it. If they don’t learn about psychological disorders, they may not understand their neighbor next door. Everything we teach in school, it may not seem like it, but it is part of how you function in life,” said Hall.
Hall says teachers face many challenges, but she remains dedicated to her profession.
“I think teaching is a calling. You don’t give up when it’s hard, you figure out how to do it well because the students still need you. My 25 years at Williston High School, I’ve never thought about leaving my career… I’m dedicated to what this is,” said Hall.
Hall was selected from a crowded field. The department of public instruction says 166 teachers were nominated from Williams County. That’s nearly half of the total nominations across the state.
McKenzie County – Tiffany Olson, Fox Hills Elementary
Tiffany Olson is a fourth-grade math teacher at Fox Hills Elementary. The Watford City native has 32 years’ experience teaching, with the last five being back in her hometown.
“My daughter also teaches here at Fox Hills, so it’s awesome. It’s a different community than when I grew up here, but I love it,” said Olson.
The elementary became departmentalized this year, meaning Olson exclusively teaches math to nearly 100 students every day.
“I love math, so it’s pretty awesome,” said Olson.
Olson says she became a teacher because she loves to work with children.
“I teach because I love to be around students. I love kids. It’s pretty awesome to watch them learn new things and watch them grow throughout the school year. I love building relationships with them, and I wouldn’t want to do anything else,” said Olson.
While she hopes her students leave her class with better math skills, she also hopes they learn it’s okay to make mistakes.
“I just want them to try their hardest and making mistakes is learning. We’re going to make mistakes in math, I made a mistake, and they called me out on it, and I love it. That’s a part of learning,” said Olson.
Olson says she appreciates the recognition but notes that all teachers work hard.
Divide County – Rayme Haggin, Divide County Elementary
Rayme Haggin teaches second grade at Divide County Elementary School in Crosby. She moved to Crosby from Minot 14 years ago to begin her career.
“My original plan was to come here for a year or two and feel it out before heading back to the city, but I love it here so much. I love the accepting community; I love the students here and my co-workers. It’s awesome up here, I love it,” said Haggin.
Haggin says her class has a lot of fun, but they also get a lot of work done too.
“I try to keep them busy moving, and then give them some work. I help them learn and just become the best version of themselves they can possibly be,” said Haggin.
Haggin says this job is all about supporting her students.
“I love working with the kids. I know that’s a cliché answer, but I can’t picture doing anything else every day for the rest of my life. I have been having a lot of fun,” said Haggin.
Haggin says her message to her students is that anything is possible if they put in the effort.
“I want them to know that I truly believe that they can do anything they want to do in life as long as they continue to work hard and be themselves,” said Haggin.
Haggin also spent a couple years teaching kindergarten.
The recipients of the award are eligible to apply for state Teacher of the Year honors. The winner will be named on September 27.
A list of all the teachers can be found here.
Copyright 2024 KFYR. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
North Dakota officials celebrate being among big winners in federal rural health funding
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Tony Osburn scored 27 points as Omaha beat North Dakota 90-79 on Thursday.
Osburn shot 8 of 12 from the field, including 5 for 8 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 9 from the line for the Mavericks (8-10, 1-2 Summit League). Paul Djobet scored 18 points and added 12 rebounds. Ja’Sean Glover finished with 10 points.
The Fightin’ Hawks (8-11, 2-1) were led by Eli King, who posted 21 points and two steals. Greyson Uelmen added 19 points for North Dakota. Garrett Anderson had 15 points and two steals.
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
MINOT — Minot’s District 3 is home to Reps. Jeff Hoverson and Lori VanWinkle, two of the most controversial members of the Legislature, but maybe not for much longer.
District 3, like all odd-numbered districts in our state, is on the ballot this election cycle, and the House incumbents there
have just drawn two serious challengers.
Tim Mihalick and Blaine DesLauriers, each with a background in banking, have announced campaigns for those House seats. Mihalick is a senior vice president at First Western Bank & Trust and serves on the State Board of Higher Education. DesLauriers is vice chair of the board and senior executive vice president at First International Bank & Trust.
The entry into this race has delighted a lot of traditionally conservative Republicans in North Dakota
Hoverson, who has worked as a Lutheran pastor, has frequently made headlines with his bizarre antics. He was
banned from the Minot International Airport
after he accused a security agent of trying to touch his genitals. He also
objected
to a Hindu religious leader participating in the Legislature’s schedule of multi-denominational invocation leaders and, on his local radio show, seemed to suggest that Muslim cultures that force women to wear burkas
have it right.
Hoeverson has also backed legislation to mandate prayer and the display of the Ten Commandments in schools, and to encourage the end of Supreme Court precedent prohibiting bans on same sex marriage.
Tom Stromme / The Bismarck Tribune
VanWinkle, for her part, went on a rant last year in which she suggested that women struggling with infertility have been cursed by God
(she later claimed her comments, which were documented in a floor speech, were taken out of context)
before taking
a weeklong ski vacation
during the busiest portion of the legislative session (she continued to collect her daily legislative pay while absent). When asked by a constituent why she doesn’t attend regular public forums in Minot during the legislative session,
she said she wasn’t willing to “sacrifice” any more of her personal time.
The incumbents haven’t officially announced their reelection bids, but it’s my practice to treat all incumbents as though they’re running again until we learn otherwise.
In many ways, VanWinkle and Hoverson are emblematic of the ascendant populist, MAGA-aligned faction of the North Dakota Republican Party. They are on the extreme fringe of conservative politics, and openly detest their traditionally conservative leaders. Now they’ve got challengers who are respected members of Minot’s business community, and will no doubt run well-organized and well-funded campaigns.
If the 2026 election is a turning point in the
internecine conflict among North Dakota Republicans
— the battle to see if our state will be governed by traditional conservatives or culture war populists — this primary race in District 3 could well be the hinge on which it turns.
In the 2024 cycle, there was an effort, largely organized by then-Rep. Brandon Prichard, to push far-right challengers against more moderate incumbent Republicans.
It was largely unsuccessful.
Most of the candidates Prichard backed lost, including Prichard himself, who was
defeated in the June primary
by current Rep. Mike Berg, a candidate with a political profile not all that unlike that of Mihalick and DesLauriers.
But these struggles among Republicans are hardly unique to North Dakota, and the populist MAGA faction has done better elsewhere. In South Dakota, for instance, in the 2024 primary,
more than a dozen incumbent Republicans were swept out of office.
Can North Dakota’s normie Republicans avoid that fate? They’ll get another test in 2026, but recruiting strong challengers like Mihalick and DesLauriers is a good sign for them.
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