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NEW E DLIN t A E D a day i r F is . 4 p.m

EDITORIAL Who is in Control?- Page 3

Serving the Region Since 1907

Vol. 115 No. 19

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MAY 8, 2020

Governor says schools stay closed Staff Report

The schools in North Dakota will remain closed for the remainder of the spring semester, the governor announced Friday. In his daily press conference, Gov. Doug Burgum announced the schools would stay closed while at the same time the state moves to reopen and lessen some of the restrictions placed on businesses more than a month ago. Schools stay closed When it came to schools, the governor said that the state knew there needed to be a quick and early closure in North Dakota. “North Dakota has been a shining example of distance learning,” he said, adding that he wanted to give credit to the schools for keeping up the nutrition and special education missions during the closure. “They have continued to educate students across the state with combinations of online instruction, use of good old fashioned books and homework.” He also thanked the parents for their role in education since the closure began. “We are going to continue with school distance leaning for the rest of the year. The decision to remain with distance learning was made after much deliberation. With the size and scale of this, we are talking about over 135,000 who will be affected directly. It doesn’t count family members and parents. “Parents of school kids work in nursing homes. Parents and grandparents of kids that go to school are about 20 percent of the North Dakota vulnerable population. “We had tremendous input, side-by-side and step-by-step with the superintendent of the DPI (Department of Public Instruction), the North Dakota Department of Health and its physician advisory board, school administrators, the teachers’ union, school board members, legislators and par-

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state will have the opportunity for a stronger and better capability to protect its most vulnerable citizens. It addition, the state will be able to better manage any outbreaks that may occur. “That is going to be really helpful. We think the risk right now, relative to a few weeks; versus spending that time building our capability.... we think that we would be taking our capacity for testing and contact tracing from those most vulnerable. “Opening up businesses also involved risks, but there was an economic risk to leaving them closed,” he said. Another factor in the decision was that there wasn’t an economic factor against distance learning, the governor explained. “If we had decided to reopen for the last couple of weeks of school, there would have been an enormous burden on our 175 school boards,” he said, noting it would have caused weeks of school board meetings and angst from parents over the safety of returning the children to school. “We are much better taking that energy to focus on making the distance learning experience as productive and as positive for those students for these last remaining days. It is also going to free up capacity planning for those administrators, school boards and teachers to plan for summer programs and to focus on the special needs for students who

lack the skills, the tools or the access to participate fully. “It will allow time to plan for in-person classroom instruction for next fall because there is no replacement for face-to-face learning between the teachers and students,” the governor added. He also said that it will provide an opportunity to upgrade the distance learning experience with upgrades and improvements. “We know now what works and what doesn’t work.” The decision also provides the schools, faculty and parents with certainty for the remainder of the school year, he said. Unprecedented changes According to the State Superintendent of Schools, Kirsten Baesler, the pandemic has caused an unprecedented disruption in the traditional way that school was provided in the state. Education did not stop when the school doors closed to the buildings, she explained during the press conference Friday in Bismarck. “Record amounts of innovation and transformation in education have been produced during this time and they were developed and planned for in a record matter of days,” she said. “North Dakota has led the nation in demonstrating the agility and the

Burgum asks for budget cuts, joins cities and counties Staff Report

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ents. They all provided input into this decision,” the governor said. “It is an emotional decision to make, particularly given how emotionally connected we are to our schools, our communities and our teens. We know that reopening for this short period of time would have required at least a week of planning. We have gone through the analysis. Our schools in North Dakota... their last day is May 13 and others are done May 20 or by Memorial Day, depending on the school week, so the schools has one week left, two weeks left or three weeks left. “We know the final few days of school were probably not the highest learning days of the year,” he said, recalling his own school recollections as well as those of when his children were in school. “The risk associated with bringing everybody back in terms of potential outbreaks, including in communities where we haven’t been hot spots and could become one because of school interactions. It is not only about protecting the students, but protecting the whole community and the number of communities that have long-term care and other facilities. “We’re thinking about the whole ecosystem here.” By keeping the schools closed, the decision will also allow administrators to plan for both summer school and the start of school in the fall, in addition to have healthy and safe ways to hold graduation ceremonies, he explained. “It is a way to manage risks. It is not that the virus has gone away. It has not. It is not that it is still not contagious. It is not that it is still not deadly to people with underlying health conditions, but we have been able to reduce risk, building the capacity around testing and contact tracing and targeted isolation,” the governor said. Looking ahead to the fall, the governor said the

The North Dakota governor has asked for state agencies to come up with budget cuts. With the request, announced May 1, Gov. Doug Burgum joined with municipal and county governments throughout the state, including in Bowman County. The governor announced that the agencies should come up ways to cut between five and 15 percent from their budgets in addition to identify methods to improve efficiency – all in response to the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of oil prices on the world market. According to the governor, the larger agencies will need to come up with the larger cutbacks. The only programs spared from the requested cutbacks will be public schools and Medicaid. The move mirrors the actions of the City of Bowman and Bowman County, as well as most of the state’s smaller governments. According to the state’s oil regulator, approximately one-third of the oil wells in North Dakota are not active because of the drop in oil demand attributed to the stay-athome battles with the pandemic in addition to a battle over oil between Russia and Saudi Arabia. The governor is requesting that the agencies come up with suggested cutbacks by July 15, in addition to requesting the state legislature come up with ways to meet the new economic realities. The governor, who has kicked off the phased reopening of businesses with certain restrictions, explained at his daily press conference that there is an economic risk in-

volved. “Some of it has to do with economic risk and some of it has to do with … testing and contact tracing. We are in the position, based upon our healthcare capacity – using less than two percent for hospitalization – we can dial up more risk,” he said. “By opening up businesses which were economically impaired because we mandated their closure are a way to help relieve stress and help get that part of the economy going again.” Unlike with businesses, the governor said that there was more of a contact risk if the state allowed the reopening of the schools. Bowman County In Bowman County, local commissioners are already looking at ways to come up with ways to trim the budget because of the oil revenue drop and the pandemic closures also causing a drop in tax revenues. According to Sandra Tivis, the county auditor, Bowman County is in a good position for the present. However, the county commissioners and county departments are working to identify ways to cut back and economize, she said. “At our last meeting, the commissioners had the department heads and elected officials in the meeting. They did ask the people to go through their budget and bring a revision back with some reductions in different areas where they feel they can expenses. They’ll present it at the meeting tomorrow (May 5),” she explained Monday. Once the county received the submitted recommendations, the county auditor said she will probably come up with a revised budget. The North Dakota Association of Coun-

ties arranged for an online meeting between county, city and state officials throughout the state, she added. “They visited with the governor on different issues but I don’t know what the results of that meeting was. That meeting may be one of the subjects tackled in the meeting Tuesday,” she explained. The county may be able to get some assistance from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). “That is available to us. We just have to upload to their website. We get the expenses in batches.” In addition, the county also has to submit expenses and costs incurred which are not covered by the FEMA guidelines. “That is through the CARES Act at the federal level,” she added. The county auditor also said that Bowman County is still in a good place economically. “We have sufficient to meet this year’s budget that was approved last fall. We are just looking ahead. It is not like we are going to have to close down the government. We have sufficient revenues (because of) the due diligence of our commissioners’ planning to meet all of our expenses this year. “But, with all the reductions in the revenues, we are just trying to get a handle on it. We don’t know what kind of carryover we are going to start next year with,” she added. City of Bowman According to Lyn James, the president of the city commission, Bowman is still in the process of identifying ways to cut expenditures as much as possible. “We’ll probably start our budget corrections at the next meeting (later in May),” she explained Monday.

See SCHOOLS Page 3

Economy reopening in time for Mothers Day

Staff Report

North Dakota is reopening its business economy, just in time for Mother’s Day. The annual day to honor family matriarchs will be May 10, on Sunday. For Lasting Visions’ Lyn James, a Bowman florist, it was perfect timing. She has Mother’s Day shoppers already in her store early Monday morning. “We are following all of the guidelines and welcoming people in, as appropriate under the North Dakota guidelines. The people are very happy to come in and shop,” she explained. The first Mother’s Day observance started in West Virginia more than a century ago. Now, it is observed on the second Sunday in May. Florists are not the only businesses which are reopening under the state’s Restart campaign, announced by the governor. Gov. Doug Burgum announced that some of the businesses which had been closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic would be able to reopen, as long as they maintained social distancing and cleaning guidelines. There still will be restrictions on capacity for businesses like bars and restaurants, which will be limited to half capacity. In addition, there are requirements that servers, barbers and cosmetologists wear facial masks.

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