North Dakota
With North Dakota schools facing 'an impending cliff,' lawmakers consider ways to help fund rebuilding
GRAND FORKS — North Dakota’s K-12 schools are getting old. Some state lawmakers say many buildings need major infrastructure updates or entirely new construction to educate children safely.
But many small districts can’t afford to pay for replacements if a critical system breaks. Just ask Anna Sell, superintendent of Oakes Public School District. Her district’s high school turned 100 last year and the elementary school was built 63 years ago. The district is home to nearly 500 students.
“We actually had a terminal breakdown of our chiller (last year). We spent months and months trying to figure out a way to replace it but the system is so old, about 50 years old, that to retrofit it would cost around $400,000-$500,000. We don’t have that kind of money,” she said. “We’ve been asked, ‘What’s plan B?’ We don’t have a plan B because we don’t have enough money for a plan B.”
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Oakes Public School District is preparing for a $14.84 million bond referendum on March 14 to support essential investments to address critical building and infrastructure needs. Those needs include a new chiller, a similarly aged boiler that needs replacing, and the replacement of 100-year-old sewer pipes running under some buildings, among other items.
“Our referendum is for four things — HVAC and windows, kitchen, plumbing and ADA-compliant bathrooms at the high school,” Sell said.
Contributed
If a group of North Dakota lawmakers have their say, the state soon will create a funding mechanism that they believe will stave off a looming problem in the state’s education system.
A proposed state-backed construction assistance plan would have defined criteria for assessing two points — the need for a new school versus refurbishment and addition, along with determining how a school district would qualify.
An initial proposal presented by the North Dakota Education Committee’s school funding task force includes a sliding scale based upon a district’s number of students, the value of a mill in the district and its access to federal funding. The scale for funding ranges from 5-95% of the total project cost and all districts must have money in the process. Funding of less than 25% requires the use of state-approved plans, bulk purchasing and construction management. The proposal would preserve local control for finishes and some exterior design, limited to preserve cost savings.
Labor costs could be controlled by awarding school construction to firms willing to manage these costs, but there is a reality of increased labor costs based upon a district’s location. The assessment criteria for additions and/or refurbishments versus new construction would be set at 60% of the cost of new construction. A triage building schedule would be used based upon the needs either due to enrollment increases or engineering reports demonstrating unsafe conditions that preclude continued use of the building.
The task force is awaiting survey details from 100 districts on their physical plant needs to help frame the process and the scale of the program.
The need, according to some lawmakers, is great.
“I think we have an impending cliff happening in North Dakota that will impact more rural schools — inadequate buildings that should no longer be used to educate children and the inability to replace them,” said Rep. Eric Murphy, a Republican from Grand Forks.
While it’s a statewide problem, Oakes’ issues may provide the best current example. For instance, the HVAC system and new windows are predicted to run close to $12 million, and replacing 65-year-old appliances and updating the district’s kitchen will cost about $2 million, Sell said. The district’s operating budget doesn’t come close to being able to fund these projects.
The district’s building fund can generate up to 20 mills, an amount approved by voters in the 1990s. That fund generates $440,000 typically for the district, and even with diligent saving there’s no possible way the district can afford to make those fixes, Sell said.
Contributed
“If we don’t have our HVAC and we lose our boiler, or we lose any other part of that system, we won’t be able to hold school at the high school,” she said. “The kitchen is 65 years old and the structure underneath, the electrical, is in bad shape. We’re getting by; we’re keeping our fingers crossed.”
The worst-case scenario for Oakes? Losing the ability to use the kitchen and having to send all the students to surrounding districts.
“What public school district would be able to absorb those 500 kids?” Sell asked. “This is so detrimental to the town if we lose our school. We know what happens to the towns in North Dakota if they lose their schools. They cease to exist.”
School Funding Task Force
Across the state, school districts are helping lawmakers come up with a funding proposal for legislative action during the 2025 session. The intent is to allow state-funded construction to supplement local resources for public schools in North Dakota. Examples of current school district funding assistance needs include:
- In Valley City, an estimated
$37 million is needed
to fix electrical, plumbing, safety issues and more across the district. The average age of the district’s buildings is 66 years and part of the high school was built 105 years ago.
- In Devils Lake, new boilers are needed at two schools in the district and air conditioning is needed at four schools. Other needs include additional classrooms at an elementary school, parking lot paving at two schools and ADA-compliance updates within the district.
Addressing aging infrastructure is just one need that districts have. Another is finding room to teach the increasing populations in growing metro areas.
Williston Basin School District has a $35 million bond referendum that will be put to voters April 17 to address its growing enrollment. Williston expects to add 1,000 more students over the next five years. The bonds will provide funds to “help construct and equip a new elementary school, purchase land for the construction of the school, and otherwise improve, renovate, remodel, construct and equip school property and make site improvements to the property.”
In September 2023, West Fargo voters defeated a $147 million referendum request that included nine projects in total. That district’s School Board is now developing strategies to engage stakeholders to create solutions that will address the rapid growth in the district.
At a Feb. 22 Education Committee meeting in Bismarck, the state’s school funding task force committee shared data collected during a survey of North Dakota schools to determine the extent of the needs.
Murphy said during this process he has looked at three other states using different funding models. Kansas uses a sliding scale to help districts with construction and renovation costs, allocating from 5-95% of the funds needed. In Wyoming, the state owns all the schools and is responsible for their maintenance and upkeep. Murphy doesn’t think the Wyoming model would work for North Dakota, where the emphasis is on local control. Minnesota’s program includes a look-back, which helps reimburse districts for certain infrastructure costs, another program Murphy’s not a fan of.
“In Grand Forks, we’re looking at building a
new school at the Air Force base
and that process taught me something important – you just can’t give people an open checkbook. A $45 million project is now approaching $90 million for about 350 children,” he told the committee. “We need to think about how we’re going to control costs. In Grand Forks, we’re good about referendums, which isn’t the case across the state.”
The first challenge the task force is addressing is determining the extent of the problem.
“We don’t know what that is yet,” Murphy told the Grand Forks Herald. “It could be somewhere around $1 billion. We have way too many schools and it’s not mismanagement, it’s not overpaid administrators. The tax base (of some districts) just doesn’t support a new school.
“A lot of our schools are very old. Times have changed and the state has changed. When it comes to the state Constitution, it’s clear – we have a responsibility to educate every child in a place that’s safe. This is what we deal with in the Legislature,” he said.
Another challenge: The value of mills varies from district to district. Data presented during the committee meeting shows the majority of school districts, 129, have mill values between $5,001 and $50,000. Bismarck has the highest value mill at $575,472 with an average daily membership (ADM) of 14,340 students. The lowest value mill (not including Grand Forks Air Force Base or Minot Air Force Base) is Twin Buttes, at $39, with a 50 ADM. Schools on Native American reservations also have access to other federal mechanisms for funding school construction.
“If the state needs to have a school construction program, how will school districts with a low value per mill ever possibly replace aging and, in many cases, dilapidated schools?” Murphy asked the task force.
“We’re going to be at a tipping point in the next few years. Building inspectors will condemn a school. How do you deal with that as a town?” Murphy asked.
Dr. Richard Faidley, superintendent at Williston Basin School District, asked the task force to analyze the upcoming referendum votes and look at funding sources.
“We have the need to build two elementary schools and the cost of construction now is astronomical in Williston. What’s $55 million today, four years ago was $32 million. The prices aren’t going to go down. We need to look at funding sources, have collaborative conversations together as a Legislature, and ask K-12 to come up with creative ways to deal with these challenges,” he said. “We’re not asking for pie in the sky. It’s a long-term situation we’re all faced with.
“There are a lot of differences in how districts receive their revenues that cause many challenges to school construction conversations. For those like West Fargo, there needs to be a solution and when it comes forward, it needs to make sure it takes care of all districts in the state. It’s a monumental task and will require additional in-depth analysis and conversations with our districts,” Faidley said.
The author of this story, Carrie McDermott, is editor of Prairie Business, a magazine published by the Grand Forks Herald. Digital subscriptions for Prairie Business are free and can be found on the Herald’s website.
North Dakota
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.
Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.
North Dakota
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
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.
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North Dakota
Finding a hero: Efforts to identify North Dakota soldier Irvin C. Ellingson’s remains took years
DAHLEN, N.D. — Four years ago, Lon Enerson started writing a book about his uncle, Staff Sgt. Irvin C. Ellingson, and the work to identify his remains.
As Enerson stood in front of the Dahlen Lutheran Church on Saturday, June 20, a casket inside waited for the
funeral and burial
of Ellingson, a soldier who waited 81 years to come home.
“I never thought I would get the final chapter,” Enerson said.
Enerson, along with scores of Ellingson relatives, waited to hear about the identification of Sgt. Ellingson from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Honolulu, Hawaii, where efforts took place to identify soldiers who died in a Tokyo prison fire during World War II. Ellingson was the third to be identified, with 10 successfully identified so far.
There were a number of Gold Star families — those whose relatives died in the line of duty — present at the Ellingson funeral. Enerson had attended a funeral at Arlington National Cemetery of the second person to be identified.
“We’re cheering for each other,” he said.
Ellingson was 25 and serving as a radar observer on a B-29 in the Pacific Theater when, on April 14, 1945, his plane was shot down during a bombing mission over mainland Japan. He was captured alongside 61 other Air Corps members, interrogated and held at a Tokyo prison. A few weeks later, on May 26, an Allied bombing run over Japan sparked a fire at the prison, killing Ellingson and the others.
The Ellingson family’s wait to bring home his remains began that year, and 81 years later, it finally happened. Enerson said the passion his grandparents felt when Ellingson died filtered down to him and his generation. It created, he said, a “common bond that we needed to get him home.”
In 2018, Enerson received a letter from Michael Krehl, instigator of the search to identify and recover the remains of the prison fire soldiers. Krehl was told by the Defense POW MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) about a process involving DNA that could identify the remains. To get the remains — interred at the American Cemetery in Manila — to Hawaii to start the identification process, 60% of the 62 families of the soldiers had to submit DNA, since the remains were commingled.
Enerson’s mother had died the year before, but two uncles, Bud and Dennis Ellingson, were still alive. They both gave their DNA, along with Enerson.
“I called them, and they were overwhelmed to tears,” Enerson said. “I said ‘I’m going to give the DPAA your address and they’re going to send you DNA sample kits.’ So we got three Ellingson DNA there. Sibling DNA is like gold.”
Barbara Geisler, a family genealogist who found Enerson so he could be sent the letter, prayed over Ellingson’s casket at Saturday’s funeral.
She said the group had to find the families for both missing and identified soldiers.
“We went for the missing first. We thought it was most important,” she said.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
Though the Ellingson family submitted their DNA, by November of 2021 the percentage of given DNA was stuck at 59.68%, Enerson said. The family went to Washington, D.C., to speak with 17 senators, including North Dakota Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, who signed a bipartisan letter to then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to get the remains.
As the letter went through, one more person submitted DNA to get over the 60% threshold, Enerson said. In spring 2022, the caskets were brought to the lab in Hawaii to begin the identification process.
Kristen Grow and Melissa Menschel were two forensic anthropologists involved in the process. Grow led the Tokyo Prison Fire project in 2024 and Menschel joined last year. They said the process involves an inventory of the remains, taking samples, finding what remains go together and looking at chemical signatures of the bones. There are also forensic odontologists who analyze teeth.
Both Grow and Menschel were present for the funeral and burial.
From 2022 to 2025 seven groups of Ellingsons visited the lab to “potentially be in that same place as Irvin would be,” Enerson said.
“There was no guarantee all along, but we always told them that the Ellingson family does have one guarantee — and that is that we’re not going to stop looking for him,” he said.
Last summer, the family got the call that Ellingson had been identified. The family was told his remains would be escorted home and a full military honors funeral would be provided all at government expense. In September, the family formed a committee made up of family members to map out the details. Enerson said the family decided upon three days of celebration.
Terry Ellingson, Enerson’s cousin, said it “takes a village to get this done.”
“Everybody decided to take care of a certain area,” he said Saturday. “It all got done, but it took a lot of contacts. Even this morning, we were short of buses for people to go to the cemetery. (And then came) a call that Midway Public Schools would provide a couple more buses for us.”
Through it all, Enerson held tight to one sentence within a deceased personnel file he received. It contained all the information the government went through to locate Ellingson.
“The sentence goes like this: ‘Sgt. McGrath saw Staff Sgt. Irvin Ellingson being interrogated at the Kempeitai military headquarters in Tokyo, leaving with 2nd Lt. Andrew Litz, to the Tokyo Military Prison,’” Enerson said. “That was a sentence that I hung onto, and we all hung onto.”
Enerson noted that 2nd Lt. Litz’s nephew and niece were at the Saturday funeral, too.
Enerson has been collecting information through the eight-plus years it took to get Ellingson home. Four years ago, people told him, “Lon, if something happens to you, no one’s going to know (this information),” he said.
“So, I started writing a book,” he said.
His sister, Jane Wood, is editing.
“He’s almost to 400 pages,” she said.
Eric Hylden / Grand Forks Herald
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