Cavalier County
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Single Copy Volume 133
Republican
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News Coverage
Copyright © Langdon, North Dakota
Monday, November 11, 2019
VSO Leon Hiltner gives his Veterans Update, see Page 7 Turn to Page 14 to learn about Kynlee's Fight.
Index OPINION YOUTH CHURCH COMMUNITY SPORTS PROF DIR AG PN CLASSIFIED
PAGE 4 PAGE 5 PAGE 6 PAGE 7 PAGE 8-9 PAGE 10 PAGE 11 PAGE 12 PAGE 13
last diesel electric submarine, cramped; you’re always within the USS Dolphin. The vessel was an arm’s reach of someone else. unique and holds several diving My longest time under water The United States of America records over its 38 year career, was slightly over 100 days,” Jerry has a long and proud history of the longest in history for a US explained. When Jerry was halfway its citizens rising to the call of Navy submarine. The USS Dolphin was turned into a museum through his career in the Navy, the country and serving in its and ported in San Diego after Lisa joined in January of 2000. armed forces. Today, there are approximately 1.3 million active duty service men and women with an additional 800,000 in the various reserves. The chance that a service member will find their partner for life among those ranks became a reality for two area Navy veterans, Jerry and Lisa Nowatzki. Jerry, a native of the Langdon area, joined the Navy in November of 1987. The decision to join came after his apprenticeship as a lineman in Montana ended due to lay-offs. At the time, he played softball with a group of military recruiters which lead him to a new career choice. “The Navy one told me I could be a lineman in the Navy with the Construction Battalion (CB’s). Once I had talked with the recruiter more, I decided to be a Communications Electrician on submarines; it paid Petty Officer 3rd Class Lisa Nowatzki and Senior Chief Petty Officer Jerry Nowatzki met and married while both served in the U.S. Navy more,” Jerry shared. Over his career in the “world’s greatest nuclear Navy”, Jerry its decommission in 2007. Jerry She trained to be an Electronics has served in submarines, with was instrumental in getting it Technician and went to work at his first submarine operating operational after a catastrophic a shore duty station in Virginia out of Holy Loch, Scotland. Af- onboard fire back in 2002 and Beach, Va. From there she was ter that, he served on subma- remained on the sub until its assigned to a carrier, the USS Stennis, in San Diego, Ca. rines and shore duty tours in decommission. “People often ask what it’s “I joined because I loved the Charleston, S.C., Norfolk, Va. , like being on a submarine for military lifestyle. I loved my time Groton, CT and San Diego, Ca. months at a time. I liken it to bein the military. I learned how to He has been under and circled the polar ice caps more than ing in a trash dumpster with 10 make friends that became famonce. Jerry also served on the people you don’t like. It’s very ily. I learned about selflessness,
LASD deficit spends $1.2 million in three years To say that things have not been going well for the Langdon Area School District is an understatement. The recent defeat of the request for an increase in the building mill levy is no longer the focus of the board and administration as the school goes into crisis mode to stop their monetary bleeding. The school board meetings over the last few months have dealt heavily with the board and administration focusing on a budget that is in the red. LASD Superintendent Daren Christianson recently informed the board that the school finished the 2018/2019 school year with a $286,000 deficit. That report, along with the fact that the 2019/2020 school budget had been made and approved at a projected deficit of approximately $300,000, caused the board to immediately convene subcommittee meetings to attempt to economized spending. “The district has historically ran a deficit to try and get it down. The state of North Dakota allows a school district to carry over 35 percent of their budget in carry-over monies- money in the bank, basically, if you want to call it that. At one time, the district was in a position where they had excess carry-over money, and they had to spend over and deficit spend in order to get that level down,” Christianson said. In 2008, the school board dropped the general mill levy
from 155 mills to 100 mills for the 2009 school year and then made another drastic cut in 2010 bringing the general mill levy to 60. From there, the school board then began to navigate the funding of the school in such a way that revenue brought in matched as closely as possible to what was needed to spend for that year’s budget. This attempt, however, has been hampered by North Dakota Century Code (NDCC) 57-15-14.2 which says the district could only implement yearly mill increases at 12 percent. What makes things even more difficult is that the district has now maxed out their mill levy (NDCC 15.1-27-04.3) which has been capped at just 70 mills. What started over a decade ago as an attempt to bring the burgeoning interim fund to within state-mandated levels thanks to a change in century code (NDCC 15.1-27-35.3) has now spiraled into a massive overspending as the school district has gone through upheavals in its administration, business office, and the need to hire additional teaching staff as numbers have exploded in the grade school. “Getting accurate numbers for carry-overs was difficult,” Christianson explained. “With the change-over in the business department and so forth and with the numbers that were available to us along with the advice we got from our auditor, we felt we
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Married and in the military: a Veterans story
By Melissa Anderson Republican Editor
LAHS and St. Alphonsus released their honor rolls, see Page 5 for list.
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were in the right place.” The reports tell a tale of expectations not being met as the last time the school had a surplus in their budget was in 2016. With a budget of just over $4.9 million, the school brought in a little over $5 million, giving them breathing room with $80,000 left over in their budget. The years spanning 2017 through 2020 years show deficit spending of approximately $600,332. With the explosion in student population, the district has had to hire several new staff members to meet the educational requirements of the elementary school. These additional salaries and expenses compounded with an overestimation of revenue expected from the state when budgets were being made, caused the school to rely on their only other source of funding. "One of the reasons we deficit spent, that we weren't aware of, is that we didn't get as much money from the state as we anticipated. We added more teachers mid-stream because of our enrollment," LASD Board President Cindy Stremrick said. In order to compensate, the district has been using their savings and CDs to cover the bills when the school’s checking account did not have sufficient funds. Business manager Shauna Schneider explained that from 2017 to the 2019, the school has had to withdraw $967,793.52 cont. on page 2
devotion, and endurance. I learned how to deal with death and how to honor the fallen with life. No experience was wasted, and I am a better person because of my military service," Lisa shared. Lisa viewed being a woman in the military like every other profession: the job and life were what she chose to make of it. She didn’t feel she had things harder or easier because she was a woman. Lisa explained that she has always thought she could do anything if she decided she wanted to do it. Her time in the Navy was time wellspent. As a woman in the military, Lisa has only one recollection of a man, who was actually one of her supervisors, making a sexist remark to her. “I was working on a piece of equipment when he came over to me, shook his head, and said, 'Chicks with tools.' I knew he meant that I was a woman in a man’s place, doing a man’s job. Yes, his comment and attitude made me angry, but it also made me more determined to prove him wrong, and I did,” Lisa said. Jerry and Lisa first met when they were both on shore duty, meaning they were assigned to a Navy base rather than on the ship for Lisa and a submarine for Jerry. The two worked together for a little over a year before Jerry was promoted to Chief Petty Officer (E8). He transferred from the department they both worked at to atcont. on page 2
Gilseth named District FCCLA President Dustin Gilseth, a junior at Langdon Area High School (LAHS), has been elected as the 2019-20 District President for District 3 North Dakota Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA). The gavel was passed during the installation ceremony from Kiarra Hodek, also a member of the LAHS FCCLA, 2018-19 District 3 President. Gilseth had to complete an application and resume before the District Leadership meeting. At the District Leadership meeting all candidates gave a 3-minute speech and answered some FCCLA questions in front of everyone. The candidates then answered more FCCLA questions for the voting delegates. Each chapter has two voting delegates at the meeting that vote for their chapter. “At first I was worried about running because I’m involved
in a lot of clubs and have a couple jobs. I thought I was way too busy to run for District President. My adviser, Mrs. Kram, talked to me about it and said that this would be an awesome thing for me because I'm so outgoing, but it is a two person job, so we would have to work together,” Gilseth explained. “ A n d when she said that, somet h i n g clicked. I told myself that in the long run, this will be perfect for me and our District.” T h e FCCLA elections are set up so that the adviser of the District President fills the position of District Advisor, which means that Gilseth and Kram will work closely together to plan necessary events. Personal growth and leadership development are at the forefront of the FCCLA mission. By completing service-learning projcont. on page 3
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