United Voices, Vol. 5 No. 2

We are United for YOU!

UNITED VOICES VOL. 5 NO. 2

2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year: Kayla Delzer Page 6

What’s Inside:

3

Be an Activist for NDU

12

The Cutting Ed

22

With One Red Paperclip

24

What It Takes To Advocate

B L I C EDUC

JANUARY 2019 AT

I

IN THIS ISSUE

E LIC S

RV

IC

Upcoming legislative session will determine our future

It’s a new year and a whole new look here at United Voices!

What we haven’t changed is our commitment to communicating with all our North Dakota United members. More importantly, we want to start conversations. Interact with us and each other anytime on social media, at www. facebook.com/ndunited or www.twitter.com/ ndunited. Give us a call or send us an e-mail at the addresses listed below on this page.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 President’s Post

14 Legislative Preview

26 Be a Leader

4 Education Perspectives

16 ESP of the Year: Denbea McNally

7 Professional 2 Development

18 Member Profile: Pat Hart

28 Local Level

20 Jamestown Clinic

31 NDU-Retired

5 Public Service Perspectives 6 ND Teacher of the Year: Kayla Delzer 9 TOY Finalist: Annette Hovey 11 TOY Finalist: Leslie Thiery 12 The Cutting Ed: Season 2

24 Advocacy Conference

|

Tom Gerhardt Director of Public Affairs tom.gerhardt@ndunited.org

ND United Voices

Sarah Keiser Johnson Special Events Coordinator sarah.johnson@ndunited.org

Education Savings Accounts/Vouchers: There will, no doubt, be continued attempts to divert public monies to private schools. The effect will be that public schools will be asked to do more with less. We were successful in turning these bad ideas away last session, and we will continue to fight these new efforts.

R

3 Higher Ed Needs 2 Our Help

United Voices is the official publication of North Dakota United, 301 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501 Contact Us: 701.223.0450 | comments@ndunited.org Postmaster, send address changes to: North Dakota United, 301 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501 Kelly Hagen Director of Communications kelly.hagen@ndunited.org

T A

G

10 TOY Finalist: Sara Medalen

22 Red Paperclip Project

Image Printing Design/Publisher

L I C EDU CA T Guns in Schools: We fully expect to see I yet another bill that would arm teachers,

Here are just some of the issues we’re keeping our eyes on: Funding: Last session, the Legislature passed a budget that had slashed $1.7 billion from the previous biennium’s budget. To do that, they had to use roughly $800 million from the state’s reserve funds. Despite a slightly improved economic picture, those reserve funds have not been replenished to the extent that would make them helpful. In short, we cannot go to the reserve fund well to make up budgetary shortfalls.

EA T

Higher Ed Funding: Higher education was exempted from the requested cuts that the Governor has asked of other state agencies.

Remember that the horrific cuts that higher ed endured last session resulted in over 600 personnel cuts and programmatic cuts across our institutions of higher education. Each university will have to be extraordinarily creative to ensure that their educational missions are not further curtailed due to cuts in personnel and programs.

PUB

staff or regular citizens in our schools. The public does not want anyone except licensed law enforcement officers to be armed in our schools. I agree! We have been successful in stopping guns in schools each of the past three sessions, and we will continue to oppose efforts to arm anyone but law enforcement in our schools.

N

We hope you like the new and improved United Voices! And thank YOU for being United!

B U P

Behavioral Health: In listening sessions across the state, I have heard from teachers talk about safety issues in their classes due in part to the dearth of behavioral health services available to the students who need them most. We have had teachers and ESP injured by students who desperately need the services they cannot get.

There is bipartisan support for doing the right thing for these students.

O

We’ve changed the print size of our magazine, while also revamping the design. We’re adding more pictures, more color and even more multimedia content connected to the stories you’ll read in these pages. In addition to the print profiles of our Teacher of the Year candidates, we have video profiles on our website, www.ndunited.org. Additionally, we have launched the second season of our acclaimed podcast, The Cutting Ed, which is available online at www.ndunited.org/ thecuttinged, or on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play or wherever you get your favorite podcasts!

It’s that time of year where we must be laserfocused on the upcoming 66th Legislative Assembly, which convenes in Bismarck on Jan. 3, 2019. There are big challenges facing the Legislature, many of which have a direct bearing on ND United members across the state doing a variety of jobs.

By Nick Archuleta NDU President

PERS: We know that we will see legislation that would mandate that the state offer only single insurance plans. If a state employee wants to insure her family, she will have to purchase the family plan on her own. It is just mean spirited to subject state employees, who will have gone two years without a salary increase, to pay more for healthcare.

E

PUB

E

E

G

EA T

Be an Activist for NDU

GR

®

R

2

President’s Post

N

GR

E

PU

O

T A

IC

We need your help to hold the line on these issues. Legislators listen to their constituents and that means they will listen to you. There is a role for you to play and that role is that of a Member Activist. Please visit www.ndunited. org and become a Member Activist.

ER S C LI

V

This is your chance to be the You in NDU. Thank you for your membership in North Dakota United! ndunited.org | 3

B L I C EDUC

JANUARY 2019 AT

I

IN THIS ISSUE

E LIC S

RV

IC

Upcoming legislative session will determine our future

It’s a new year and a whole new look here at United Voices!

What we haven’t changed is our commitment to communicating with all our North Dakota United members. More importantly, we want to start conversations. Interact with us and each other anytime on social media, at www. facebook.com/ndunited or www.twitter.com/ ndunited. Give us a call or send us an e-mail at the addresses listed below on this page.

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 President’s Post

14 Legislative Preview

26 Be a Leader

4 Education Perspectives

16 ESP of the Year: Denbea McNally

7 Professional 2 Development

18 Member Profile: Pat Hart

28 Local Level

20 Jamestown Clinic

31 NDU-Retired

5 Public Service Perspectives 6 ND Teacher of the Year: Kayla Delzer 9 TOY Finalist: Annette Hovey 11 TOY Finalist: Leslie Thiery 12 The Cutting Ed: Season 2

24 Advocacy Conference

|

Tom Gerhardt Director of Public Affairs tom.gerhardt@ndunited.org

ND United Voices

Sarah Keiser Johnson Special Events Coordinator sarah.johnson@ndunited.org

Education Savings Accounts/Vouchers: There will, no doubt, be continued attempts to divert public monies to private schools. The effect will be that public schools will be asked to do more with less. We were successful in turning these bad ideas away last session, and we will continue to fight these new efforts.

R

3 Higher Ed Needs 2 Our Help

United Voices is the official publication of North Dakota United, 301 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501 Contact Us: 701.223.0450 | comments@ndunited.org Postmaster, send address changes to: North Dakota United, 301 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501 Kelly Hagen Director of Communications kelly.hagen@ndunited.org

T A

G

10 TOY Finalist: Sara Medalen

22 Red Paperclip Project

Image Printing Design/Publisher

L I C EDU CA T Guns in Schools: We fully expect to see I yet another bill that would arm teachers,

Here are just some of the issues we’re keeping our eyes on: Funding: Last session, the Legislature passed a budget that had slashed $1.7 billion from the previous biennium’s budget. To do that, they had to use roughly $800 million from the state’s reserve funds. Despite a slightly improved economic picture, those reserve funds have not been replenished to the extent that would make them helpful. In short, we cannot go to the reserve fund well to make up budgetary shortfalls.

EA T

Higher Ed Funding: Higher education was exempted from the requested cuts that the Governor has asked of other state agencies.

Remember that the horrific cuts that higher ed endured last session resulted in over 600 personnel cuts and programmatic cuts across our institutions of higher education. Each university will have to be extraordinarily creative to ensure that their educational missions are not further curtailed due to cuts in personnel and programs.

PUB

staff or regular citizens in our schools. The public does not want anyone except licensed law enforcement officers to be armed in our schools. I agree! We have been successful in stopping guns in schools each of the past three sessions, and we will continue to oppose efforts to arm anyone but law enforcement in our schools.

N

We hope you like the new and improved United Voices! And thank YOU for being United!

B U P

Behavioral Health: In listening sessions across the state, I have heard from teachers talk about safety issues in their classes due in part to the dearth of behavioral health services available to the students who need them most. We have had teachers and ESP injured by students who desperately need the services they cannot get.

There is bipartisan support for doing the right thing for these students.

O

We’ve changed the print size of our magazine, while also revamping the design. We’re adding more pictures, more color and even more multimedia content connected to the stories you’ll read in these pages. In addition to the print profiles of our Teacher of the Year candidates, we have video profiles on our website, www.ndunited.org. Additionally, we have launched the second season of our acclaimed podcast, The Cutting Ed, which is available online at www.ndunited.org/ thecuttinged, or on iTunes, Soundcloud, Google Play or wherever you get your favorite podcasts!

It’s that time of year where we must be laserfocused on the upcoming 66th Legislative Assembly, which convenes in Bismarck on Jan. 3, 2019. There are big challenges facing the Legislature, many of which have a direct bearing on ND United members across the state doing a variety of jobs.

By Nick Archuleta NDU President

PERS: We know that we will see legislation that would mandate that the state offer only single insurance plans. If a state employee wants to insure her family, she will have to purchase the family plan on her own. It is just mean spirited to subject state employees, who will have gone two years without a salary increase, to pay more for healthcare.

E

PUB

E

E

G

EA T

Be an Activist for NDU

GR

®

R

2

President’s Post

N

GR

E

PU

O

T A

IC

We need your help to hold the line on these issues. Legislators listen to their constituents and that means they will listen to you. There is a role for you to play and that role is that of a Member Activist. Please visit www.ndunited. org and become a Member Activist.

ER S C LI

V

This is your chance to be the You in NDU. Thank you for your membership in North Dakota United! ndunited.org | 3

Education Perspectives

Duties as a citizen were challenged during the election cycle and will be challenged again during the upcoming legislative session. Are

Public Service Perspectives

you going to take this responsibility seriously?

Being a responsible citizen results in a happy and cooperative community if all in the community take citizenship to heart.

By Karen Christensen NDU Vice President of Education

Remember Your Responsibilities

L I C EDU

CA T

I

G

EA T

E

®

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PUB

E LIC S

RV

IC

We also have a social responsibly as citizens.

Volunteerism is a huge part of citizenship. Taking part in organization functions as well as helping those in need shows responsible citizenship.

Donating to the local food pantry, Red Cross or church organizations adds to the economy of your community and to your sense of pride. Participating in the school-parent organization, local 4-H activities or attending events sponsored by these organizations helps fulfill your citizen obligation.

As a citizen, you also have moral obligations. These are personal components of citizenship. We all have different moral codes and passions. You may feel morally obligated to help the environment, family or some other cause you are passionate about.

N

GR

T A

B PU

O

E

Your duties as a citizen require you to take action

All citizens have a legal obligation to practice laws that have been established. Laws protect citizens, property and the communities they live in. We should respect the laws and live by them. We should also accept the process used to develop policies and laws that benefit citizens. Be active and informed about the intent and requirements of the current laws. Visit with people around you about practicing responsibility to current laws and work to develop new laws if they are warranted.

Our citizenship was granted to us by our forefathers. Many have served to protect these rights. It is our obligation to honor and respect these privileges.

“Elections remind us not only of the rights, but the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy.”

– Robert Kennedy

4

|

ND United Voices

Social Opportunities

Member engagement will be critical during legislative session Many have said the 2019 legislative session will be a tough one, considering the state’s budget situation and calls for financial restraint. With the announcement of the Governor’s budget proposal, the issues that may be of the most interest to the members of North Dakota United will be salary appropriations for state employees and higher education faculty and staff, health insurance premiums, staffing levels within agencies, NDPERS retirement funding and privatization of public services.

Getting NDU members to be active in their union and politically engaged will make all the difference in passing legislation that is favorable to public employees.

One way to become engaged is to attend a union social. State employees and higher education faculty and staff members in Bismarck-Mandan have started having monthly socials where members and potential members come together for an hour to have some refreshments and meet new and old friends.

The social’s focus is just that, a chance to socialize and build relationships with our

By Gary Feist NDU Vice President of Public Employees

fellow co-workers while also having the opportunity to learn about the interesting and important services performed daily by members of NDU. The social will also allow you to learn about workplace issues affecting public employees and legislative bills currently moving through the Legislature.

Knowledge of the issues provides you with the confidence to contact a legislator. Knowledge and personal experiences of what is happening in our agencies and on our campuses are what legislators want to hear. Many times, if a legislator hears from more than 10 people on an issue, that’s a lot. The contact and the information provided by you will affect a legislator’s vote on a bill. NDU’s lobbyists build relationships with legislators, but the most influential contact a legislator receives is from you, a member of ND United.

It is the goal of myself and the North Dakota Public Employees local to establish monthly public employee socials across North Dakota to enable members and potential members to form friendships while also learning how they can advocate for their workplace and the legislative issues that are important to them.

Let’s have some fun and get engaged in our union. ndunited.org | 5

Education Perspectives

Duties as a citizen were challenged during the election cycle and will be challenged again during the upcoming legislative session. Are

Public Service Perspectives

you going to take this responsibility seriously?

Being a responsible citizen results in a happy and cooperative community if all in the community take citizenship to heart.

By Karen Christensen NDU Vice President of Education

Remember Your Responsibilities

L I C EDU

CA T

I

G

EA T

E

®

R

PUB

E LIC S

RV

IC

We also have a social responsibly as citizens.

Volunteerism is a huge part of citizenship. Taking part in organization functions as well as helping those in need shows responsible citizenship.

Donating to the local food pantry, Red Cross or church organizations adds to the economy of your community and to your sense of pride. Participating in the school-parent organization, local 4-H activities or attending events sponsored by these organizations helps fulfill your citizen obligation.

As a citizen, you also have moral obligations. These are personal components of citizenship. We all have different moral codes and passions. You may feel morally obligated to help the environment, family or some other cause you are passionate about.

N

GR

T A

B PU

O

E

Your duties as a citizen require you to take action

All citizens have a legal obligation to practice laws that have been established. Laws protect citizens, property and the communities they live in. We should respect the laws and live by them. We should also accept the process used to develop policies and laws that benefit citizens. Be active and informed about the intent and requirements of the current laws. Visit with people around you about practicing responsibility to current laws and work to develop new laws if they are warranted.

Our citizenship was granted to us by our forefathers. Many have served to protect these rights. It is our obligation to honor and respect these privileges.

“Elections remind us not only of the rights, but the responsibilities of citizenship in a democracy.”

– Robert Kennedy

4

|

ND United Voices

Social Opportunities

Member engagement will be critical during legislative session Many have said the 2019 legislative session will be a tough one, considering the state’s budget situation and calls for financial restraint. With the announcement of the Governor’s budget proposal, the issues that may be of the most interest to the members of North Dakota United will be salary appropriations for state employees and higher education faculty and staff, health insurance premiums, staffing levels within agencies, NDPERS retirement funding and privatization of public services.

Getting NDU members to be active in their union and politically engaged will make all the difference in passing legislation that is favorable to public employees.

One way to become engaged is to attend a union social. State employees and higher education faculty and staff members in Bismarck-Mandan have started having monthly socials where members and potential members come together for an hour to have some refreshments and meet new and old friends.

The social’s focus is just that, a chance to socialize and build relationships with our

By Gary Feist NDU Vice President of Public Employees

fellow co-workers while also having the opportunity to learn about the interesting and important services performed daily by members of NDU. The social will also allow you to learn about workplace issues affecting public employees and legislative bills currently moving through the Legislature.

Knowledge of the issues provides you with the confidence to contact a legislator. Knowledge and personal experiences of what is happening in our agencies and on our campuses are what legislators want to hear. Many times, if a legislator hears from more than 10 people on an issue, that’s a lot. The contact and the information provided by you will affect a legislator’s vote on a bill. NDU’s lobbyists build relationships with legislators, but the most influential contact a legislator receives is from you, a member of ND United.

It is the goal of myself and the North Dakota Public Employees local to establish monthly public employee socials across North Dakota to enable members and potential members to form friendships while also learning how they can advocate for their workplace and the legislative issues that are important to them.

Let’s have some fun and get engaged in our union. ndunited.org | 5

We Are All on Team Kid

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

Kayla Delzer of Mapleton named the 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications

Kayla Delzer, a third-grade teacher at Mapleton Elementary School and proud member of the Mapleton Education Association and North Dakota United, has been named the 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year.

“It is by far the most humbling experience that I’ve been a part of, and the biggest honor, by far,” Delzer said. “I really don’t have the words to express how much it means to me. I’m so grateful for so many mentors and teachers and educators and teachers along the way, who have pushed me and supported me to get me to where I’m at right now. And the encouragement of my students, to help me be brave in my classroom and to try different things, that’s ultimately what this is all about is just to make education better for all the parents and families and teachers and kids in this state.”

of her fellow finalists for the award: Sara Medalen of Minot and Annette Hovey of New Rockford-Sheyenne. The fourth finalist, Leslye Thiery of Grand Forks, was unable to attend due to a family event, but sent along a letter of congratulations that was read by Superintendent Kirsten Baesler.

Delzer has taught at Mapleton since 2016, and previously worked at West Fargo Public Schools and Thief River Falls, Minn. She has 10 years of teaching experience, and has taught both second and third grade during her career. In addition to her work in the classroom, Delzer is an internationally recognized champion of technology, speaker, author and social media influencer. She has

more than 105,000 followers on social media for her @topdogteaching accounts, and her blog, TopDogTeaching.com, is approaching 2 million views.

Burgum has named Delzer as a member of the North Dakota Innovative Education Task Force, as well as a leader of the Teacher Preparation Committee. At the Mapleton ceremony, Burgum praised Delzer for her work at advancing the teaching profession into a new age. “She does a tremendous job of embracing technology and using innovative methods to empower and challenge her students,” he said, “instilling in them a love of lifelong learning and preparing them to succeed in a 21st Century economy.”

In her acceptance speech, Delzer thanked her fellow finalists for Teacher of the Year, and all teachers in our state. “To the teachers I work with every day, I admire you. Thank you for challenging me in all of the best ways. Your support, love, hugs and extra effort do not go unnoticed.

Teaching is a team sport, and we are all on Team Kid.”

Delzer says she possesses such a passion for classroom teaching that, no matter what opportunities come her way as a speaker and advocate for education, she could never leave her job as a teacher. “Every single day, teachers are working miracles in their classrooms,” she said about teaching in small-town North Dakota, “and I think lots of times the miracles are muddled by yucky things that are happening. Just being able to shout out amazing things, whether it’s speaking at conferences or writing or blogging or interviews like this. If you give me a chance, I will talk about it.”

She hopes to use her platform as the state’s Teacher of the Year in 2019 to advocate for her profession, and to spread the word about the work that goes on in schools all across North Dakota. “I really do try to champion for teachers everywhere and how we have such an important job,” she said.

“We’re really such role models for kids, and kids see everything and they notice everything that we’re doing. … Basically, if there is a platform that somebody will give

Delzer received her award from Gov. Doug Burgum at a special ceremony held in Mapleton on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Also in attendance at the ceremony were two 6

6

|

ND United Voices

ndunited.org

|

7

We Are All on Team Kid

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

Kayla Delzer of Mapleton named the 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications

Kayla Delzer, a third-grade teacher at Mapleton Elementary School and proud member of the Mapleton Education Association and North Dakota United, has been named the 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year.

“It is by far the most humbling experience that I’ve been a part of, and the biggest honor, by far,” Delzer said. “I really don’t have the words to express how much it means to me. I’m so grateful for so many mentors and teachers and educators and teachers along the way, who have pushed me and supported me to get me to where I’m at right now. And the encouragement of my students, to help me be brave in my classroom and to try different things, that’s ultimately what this is all about is just to make education better for all the parents and families and teachers and kids in this state.”

of her fellow finalists for the award: Sara Medalen of Minot and Annette Hovey of New Rockford-Sheyenne. The fourth finalist, Leslye Thiery of Grand Forks, was unable to attend due to a family event, but sent along a letter of congratulations that was read by Superintendent Kirsten Baesler.

Delzer has taught at Mapleton since 2016, and previously worked at West Fargo Public Schools and Thief River Falls, Minn. She has 10 years of teaching experience, and has taught both second and third grade during her career. In addition to her work in the classroom, Delzer is an internationally recognized champion of technology, speaker, author and social media influencer. She has

more than 105,000 followers on social media for her @topdogteaching accounts, and her blog, TopDogTeaching.com, is approaching 2 million views.

Burgum has named Delzer as a member of the North Dakota Innovative Education Task Force, as well as a leader of the Teacher Preparation Committee. At the Mapleton ceremony, Burgum praised Delzer for her work at advancing the teaching profession into a new age. “She does a tremendous job of embracing technology and using innovative methods to empower and challenge her students,” he said, “instilling in them a love of lifelong learning and preparing them to succeed in a 21st Century economy.”

In her acceptance speech, Delzer thanked her fellow finalists for Teacher of the Year, and all teachers in our state. “To the teachers I work with every day, I admire you. Thank you for challenging me in all of the best ways. Your support, love, hugs and extra effort do not go unnoticed.

Teaching is a team sport, and we are all on Team Kid.”

Delzer says she possesses such a passion for classroom teaching that, no matter what opportunities come her way as a speaker and advocate for education, she could never leave her job as a teacher. “Every single day, teachers are working miracles in their classrooms,” she said about teaching in small-town North Dakota, “and I think lots of times the miracles are muddled by yucky things that are happening. Just being able to shout out amazing things, whether it’s speaking at conferences or writing or blogging or interviews like this. If you give me a chance, I will talk about it.”

She hopes to use her platform as the state’s Teacher of the Year in 2019 to advocate for her profession, and to spread the word about the work that goes on in schools all across North Dakota. “I really do try to champion for teachers everywhere and how we have such an important job,” she said.

“We’re really such role models for kids, and kids see everything and they notice everything that we’re doing. … Basically, if there is a platform that somebody will give

Delzer received her award from Gov. Doug Burgum at a special ceremony held in Mapleton on Tuesday, Sept. 25. Also in attendance at the ceremony were two 6

6

|

ND United Voices

ndunited.org

|

7

Perfect Harmony

Teacher of the Year finalist sings praises for literature and history

By Tom Gerhardt NDU Communications

me, I will shout out the praises of teachers and learning.”

Delzer tries to take a team approach to education, and she said she hopes to fit into our system of education wherever and however she can be the most help. And so, her membership in the National Education Association and North Dakota United has meant a lot to her because of the opportunities it gains her to network with her fellow teachers.

“Hands down, for me, it’s been the power of connection,” Delzer said. “I talk all the time about how teaching is a team sport and how really we can’t do it by ourselves.

I could have all the resources and think I know everything about teaching, but I’m not going to be as good of a teacher as I could be if I’m not collaborating with other teachers. And so, for me, through NEA and North Dakota United, I’ve met inspirational teachers from across North Dakota that are doing amazing things in their classroom that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”

Her best advice for educators is to share your lessons and successes with others in the field. “When you learn about something that’s best for kids or that’s right for kids, not to delay doing it but to just dive right in and try it right away,” she said. “You don’t always need to wait for the 8

8

|

ND United Voices

New Rockford-Sheyenne teacher Annette Hovey knows there is power in music. It’s a power that reaches the head and the heart.

next school year to try something. If you know that it’s best practice, just start doing it the next day or the next week … or even try it with another teacher that you have support with.”

“

“The beauty that these kids get to create and experience in their day, I just really think that makes a difference in who they are as a person and how they are. I don’t have kids in my room that really have very many emotional problems because I think music makes a difference with them, and that delves deep into your soul,” Hovey said.

Hands down, for me, it’s been the power of connection.

”

Delzer also recommends that teachers always remain willing to learn from their colleagues and from the students in their classrooms. “Everyone’s a teacher; everyone’s a learner,” she said, “I believe that to my core, as we’re doing Genius Hour and my kids are teaching me all sorts of things, ranging from beech martens to chameleons to coding. For me to be able to learn about that has been really awesome, just allowing my kids to be the teacher, whether it’s something that’s about their culture, (and) being able to highlight that and share that.”

Hovey, a 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year finalist, exposes her students to literature from all eras of music and helps them learn the history behind each piece they sing or play.

Recently, the choir performed a classic, complicated piece by Rachmaninoff at the North Dakota Music Educators Conference. It’s a song Hovey had sung in college.

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

kids and we didn’t start with measure one, I think we started with measure 5, I said let’s just do this measure. Taught the kids the note, put it all together and it brought tears to my eyes, just that one measure of what they were doing from day one and then of course when they see that it affects me, it affects them and that really helped, too,” Hovey said.

Hovey says she decided as a teenager she was going to be a music teacher and never wavered from the decision.

The music program has grown and flourished under Hovey — and continues to be a source of pride for the school and community.

“I think people think I’m a happy person, why am I a happy person? I get to make music every day. I get to hear music every day. I get to bring that out of kids and to me that brings immense joy to my life and it’s like music my statement on the wall — it’s not what I do, it’s who I am,” Hovey said.

“So (I) bought the piece, brought it to the

And always keep in mind how lucky we all are to do what we do in public education.

“There is no better job in the world than being an educator,” Delzer said, “and knowing that I see the product of my work every single day, through my kids. I know that I’m making the world a better place through them. There’s no better job than being an educator, there’s just not.”

8

9

Perfect Harmony

Teacher of the Year finalist sings praises for literature and history

By Tom Gerhardt NDU Communications

me, I will shout out the praises of teachers and learning.”

Delzer tries to take a team approach to education, and she said she hopes to fit into our system of education wherever and however she can be the most help. And so, her membership in the National Education Association and North Dakota United has meant a lot to her because of the opportunities it gains her to network with her fellow teachers.

“Hands down, for me, it’s been the power of connection,” Delzer said. “I talk all the time about how teaching is a team sport and how really we can’t do it by ourselves.

I could have all the resources and think I know everything about teaching, but I’m not going to be as good of a teacher as I could be if I’m not collaborating with other teachers. And so, for me, through NEA and North Dakota United, I’ve met inspirational teachers from across North Dakota that are doing amazing things in their classroom that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.”

Her best advice for educators is to share your lessons and successes with others in the field. “When you learn about something that’s best for kids or that’s right for kids, not to delay doing it but to just dive right in and try it right away,” she said. “You don’t always need to wait for the 8

8

|

ND United Voices

New Rockford-Sheyenne teacher Annette Hovey knows there is power in music. It’s a power that reaches the head and the heart.

next school year to try something. If you know that it’s best practice, just start doing it the next day or the next week … or even try it with another teacher that you have support with.”

“

“The beauty that these kids get to create and experience in their day, I just really think that makes a difference in who they are as a person and how they are. I don’t have kids in my room that really have very many emotional problems because I think music makes a difference with them, and that delves deep into your soul,” Hovey said.

Hands down, for me, it’s been the power of connection.

”

Delzer also recommends that teachers always remain willing to learn from their colleagues and from the students in their classrooms. “Everyone’s a teacher; everyone’s a learner,” she said, “I believe that to my core, as we’re doing Genius Hour and my kids are teaching me all sorts of things, ranging from beech martens to chameleons to coding. For me to be able to learn about that has been really awesome, just allowing my kids to be the teacher, whether it’s something that’s about their culture, (and) being able to highlight that and share that.”

Hovey, a 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year finalist, exposes her students to literature from all eras of music and helps them learn the history behind each piece they sing or play.

Recently, the choir performed a classic, complicated piece by Rachmaninoff at the North Dakota Music Educators Conference. It’s a song Hovey had sung in college.

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

kids and we didn’t start with measure one, I think we started with measure 5, I said let’s just do this measure. Taught the kids the note, put it all together and it brought tears to my eyes, just that one measure of what they were doing from day one and then of course when they see that it affects me, it affects them and that really helped, too,” Hovey said.

Hovey says she decided as a teenager she was going to be a music teacher and never wavered from the decision.

The music program has grown and flourished under Hovey — and continues to be a source of pride for the school and community.

“I think people think I’m a happy person, why am I a happy person? I get to make music every day. I get to hear music every day. I get to bring that out of kids and to me that brings immense joy to my life and it’s like music my statement on the wall — it’s not what I do, it’s who I am,” Hovey said.

“So (I) bought the piece, brought it to the

And always keep in mind how lucky we all are to do what we do in public education.

“There is no better job in the world than being an educator,” Delzer said, “and knowing that I see the product of my work every single day, through my kids. I know that I’m making the world a better place through them. There’s no better job than being an educator, there’s just not.”

8

9

Teaching with a Certain Style

ND Teacher of the Year finalist from Minot tends to the hair and the hearts of her students

Finding Students’ Voice and Choice

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

By Tom Gerhardt NDU Communications

Sara Medalen’s classroom is a family — with one giant heart. “We have to reach the heart before we can teach the mind,” Medalen said. “I really believe in curiosity and I think that learning needs to be joyful, and I tried to bring that in every single day to this room.”

Medalen, a Title 1 teacher at Sunnyside Elementary in Minot, was named a finalist for 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year.

You may remember her Books and Braids program. It’s part of her mission to empower students of all backgrounds through literacy. Students read to her while she styles their hair.

“Kids really need to be listened to and understood before learning can happen,” she said. “And that one-on-one time also allows them a chance to just chat with me and have somebody really listen and understand and help build up their confidence. And I’ve seen a real difference in that.”

10

The program has since grown to “Dudes and Do’s.”

“And, again, it’s not about the hairdo,” Medalen repeated. “It’s about the one-onone time with a caring adult. And it’s so fun. The boys like to read the joke books actually and what a great way for me to start my morning to just be able to hear jokes all morning and laugh with the kids, so a lot of really magical moments happen and a lot of great memories are made in there.”

Medalen says she’s seen the power of books and how they can change lives and provide students with hope.

Medalen’s message and vision is representative of Sunnyside Elementary — to help all students achieve their dreams.

“Every single day that’s what we’re trying to do,” she said. “We are trying to give them hope to achieve their dreams and to work with the group of people that I do. This is not just me. For me to be nominated as teacher of the year. Every teacher in the school honestly has a huge part of this.”

Grand Forks educator was finalist for 2019 ND Teacher of the Year

By Tom Gerhardt NDU Communications

With one look at Leslye Thiery’s fifth-grade classroom at Discovery Elementary in Grand Forks, you can tell her students are engaged.

This day, her students are learning about cells. Thiery, a finalist for 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the year, is a strong believer in student voice and choice.

How they learn about cells — and then demonstrate their knowledge — is up to each individual student.

“Some kids are natural coders and engineers, so they wanted to design something to show how a cell could function. Some kids are artists they really just wanted to draw pictures or sculpt something with Play-Doh to show that, how it worked. Other kids are musicians so there’s a group of three kids who are creating a beatbox and a rap to perform,” Thiery said.

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

it’s a process through each school year that builds up to each student taking responsibility for their own learning.

“Pretty soon what happens throughout the year is they’re teaching. We do something in math, we call it math focus groups, and they’re all different abilities in math, but the teacher leaders step up and somebody will say I don’t know, this is highlighted, I don’t understand, this and the teacher leader will say ‘I’ve got this’ and will automatically walk over and help kids. You just see kids getting up and moving around and helping each other and they don’t need me for that — they’re working together,” Thiery said.

Thiery isn’t much for individual honors, instead pointing out her nomination is representative of all of Discovery Elementary and Grand Forks Public Schools.

Thiery believes giving students “voice and choice” is empowering. She says

ndunited.org

|

11 11

Teaching with a Certain Style

ND Teacher of the Year finalist from Minot tends to the hair and the hearts of her students

Finding Students’ Voice and Choice

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

By Tom Gerhardt NDU Communications

Sara Medalen’s classroom is a family — with one giant heart. “We have to reach the heart before we can teach the mind,” Medalen said. “I really believe in curiosity and I think that learning needs to be joyful, and I tried to bring that in every single day to this room.”

Medalen, a Title 1 teacher at Sunnyside Elementary in Minot, was named a finalist for 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the Year.

You may remember her Books and Braids program. It’s part of her mission to empower students of all backgrounds through literacy. Students read to her while she styles their hair.

“Kids really need to be listened to and understood before learning can happen,” she said. “And that one-on-one time also allows them a chance to just chat with me and have somebody really listen and understand and help build up their confidence. And I’ve seen a real difference in that.”

10

The program has since grown to “Dudes and Do’s.”

“And, again, it’s not about the hairdo,” Medalen repeated. “It’s about the one-onone time with a caring adult. And it’s so fun. The boys like to read the joke books actually and what a great way for me to start my morning to just be able to hear jokes all morning and laugh with the kids, so a lot of really magical moments happen and a lot of great memories are made in there.”

Medalen says she’s seen the power of books and how they can change lives and provide students with hope.

Medalen’s message and vision is representative of Sunnyside Elementary — to help all students achieve their dreams.

“Every single day that’s what we’re trying to do,” she said. “We are trying to give them hope to achieve their dreams and to work with the group of people that I do. This is not just me. For me to be nominated as teacher of the year. Every teacher in the school honestly has a huge part of this.”

Grand Forks educator was finalist for 2019 ND Teacher of the Year

By Tom Gerhardt NDU Communications

With one look at Leslye Thiery’s fifth-grade classroom at Discovery Elementary in Grand Forks, you can tell her students are engaged.

This day, her students are learning about cells. Thiery, a finalist for 2019 North Dakota Teacher of the year, is a strong believer in student voice and choice.

How they learn about cells — and then demonstrate their knowledge — is up to each individual student.

“Some kids are natural coders and engineers, so they wanted to design something to show how a cell could function. Some kids are artists they really just wanted to draw pictures or sculpt something with Play-Doh to show that, how it worked. Other kids are musicians so there’s a group of three kids who are creating a beatbox and a rap to perform,” Thiery said.

Check out our newsfeed at ndunited.org/articles to watch video of this story

it’s a process through each school year that builds up to each student taking responsibility for their own learning.

“Pretty soon what happens throughout the year is they’re teaching. We do something in math, we call it math focus groups, and they’re all different abilities in math, but the teacher leaders step up and somebody will say I don’t know, this is highlighted, I don’t understand, this and the teacher leader will say ‘I’ve got this’ and will automatically walk over and help kids. You just see kids getting up and moving around and helping each other and they don’t need me for that — they’re working together,” Thiery said.

Thiery isn’t much for individual honors, instead pointing out her nomination is representative of all of Discovery Elementary and Grand Forks Public Schools.

Thiery believes giving students “voice and choice” is empowering. She says

ndunited.org

|

11 11

Season Two of the Cutting Ed

“

Groundbreaking podcast continues to explore the topic of innovative education in ND

Heidi Demars, a mindfulness trainer and founder of Mindful You, Mindful Me:

We know when we’re calm, we can focus, and when we can focus, we can learn. And that’s the ultimate goal is to change how we feel. But first we have to recognize what’s going on.

We can teach about the brain and the body, and it’s crazy. Our ancestors used to have two fight-or-flight episodes per week, and this is like running from a tiger to live! Right now, post-Industrial time, we have 52 (per week) and that could mean a pop quiz, that same stress response is happening in the body as if we were being chased. If we know this, we can work with it, but we have to practice, and that’s why it’s called a mindfulness practice.”

Leah Juelke, an ELL teacher at Fargo South High School and the 2018 North Dakota Teacher of the Year:

“ The second season of the award-winning podcast, The Cutting Ed, is up and running at our website, www.ndunited. org/thecuttinged. The Cutting Ed podcast started in 2017 as a partnership between North Dakota United; school innovation expert and National Education Association Friend of Education award winner, Ted Dintersmith; the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction; and Prairie Public Education Services.

Each week, host Tom Gerhardt talks to stakeholders in the North Dakota public education system about innovative practices that are happening in classrooms all across the state. In the first season, The Cutting Ed spoke to policymakers, including Gov. Doug Burgum; education advocates like Dintersmith and ND United President Nick Archuleta; administrators such as Cory Steiner, superintendent at Northern Cass Public Schools; students; and educators, like 2019 ND Teacher of the Year Kayla Delzer.

12

|

ND United Voices

Every Tuesday, you can tune into new episodes featuring conversations with even more of the best and brightest in our state, who are directly involved with the education process. Each episode is posted on our website, as well as on social media at www.facebook.com/thecuttinged and www.twitter.com/thecuttinged.

Additionally, you can find The Cutting Ed podcast on your favorite podcasting platforms, such as iTunes, Spreaker, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Soundcloud and more! Just search for The Cutting Ed wherever you get your favorite podcasts from, and subscribe. It’s easy! Each episode is incredibly informative for North Dakota educators and anyone interested in the tremendous job our schools are doing in the state at preparing young people for their future.

We hope to see and hear you on The Cutting Ed!

My classes are all inclusively refugee and immigrant. We have sheltered instruction at Fargo South, which means my English 1 class will be only refugee and immigrant students or ELL learners that are basic English just learning, ‘My name is …’ and very basic, and then we go all the way up to English 4, which our kids that are ready to transition into a mainstream English classroom, and they’re able to write a short story and explore ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Looking at the difference of levels that we have here at Fargo South …what I want to do for these students is I want to be able to give them life skills. I’ve really focused on stressing responsibility, stressing positive attitude and coming in here with respect. And I think those are the very core values of my classroom. The first day of school, I take all my classes outside, and we do team-building exercises. We actually do relay races, and they tie their legs together and they run. And they come back, and they complain that it’s so warm outside. I usually say, ‘Just wait. It’s going to get colder.’ (laughs) So it’s really about first forming that team in the classroom, and really, a family. Once we have that kind of core talk about why we’re here, why we want to learn what are we going to use, then we can continue with the content.”

Wendy Bichler, eighth-grade teacher in Ashley:

“ Jessica Schmidt, third-grade teacher in Ashley:

“

Part of it is that I’ve started the last few years really focusing on the writing process. And with the writing process, part of it is I want to actually do the editing and the proofreading.… I know I’m in a small class, but when there’s only one of me, and it’s so much easier when I have those eighth-graders or those seventh-graders or whichever grade, and they can work one-on-one with the students and everyone is working at the same time … it makes my life easier, and the third-graders absolutely love it.”

This school has always been my home.

Because my mom was a special ed teacher here for 35 years. She just retired last year.

So this has been my home, and it was kind of awesome to come back to my home. And I didn’t have to worry about making friends because I already knew all the teachers here. (laughs) It was an easy transition, and everybody treated me like a colleague. Which was like, are they going to think of me as a student still, or are they going to treat me like a colleague? And it was like, hey, welcome to the teaching world. It was awesome.”

ndunited.org

|

13

Season Two of the Cutting Ed

“

Groundbreaking podcast continues to explore the topic of innovative education in ND

Heidi Demars, a mindfulness trainer and founder of Mindful You, Mindful Me:

We know when we’re calm, we can focus, and when we can focus, we can learn. And that’s the ultimate goal is to change how we feel. But first we have to recognize what’s going on.

We can teach about the brain and the body, and it’s crazy. Our ancestors used to have two fight-or-flight episodes per week, and this is like running from a tiger to live! Right now, post-Industrial time, we have 52 (per week) and that could mean a pop quiz, that same stress response is happening in the body as if we were being chased. If we know this, we can work with it, but we have to practice, and that’s why it’s called a mindfulness practice.”

Leah Juelke, an ELL teacher at Fargo South High School and the 2018 North Dakota Teacher of the Year:

“ The second season of the award-winning podcast, The Cutting Ed, is up and running at our website, www.ndunited. org/thecuttinged. The Cutting Ed podcast started in 2017 as a partnership between North Dakota United; school innovation expert and National Education Association Friend of Education award winner, Ted Dintersmith; the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction; and Prairie Public Education Services.

Each week, host Tom Gerhardt talks to stakeholders in the North Dakota public education system about innovative practices that are happening in classrooms all across the state. In the first season, The Cutting Ed spoke to policymakers, including Gov. Doug Burgum; education advocates like Dintersmith and ND United President Nick Archuleta; administrators such as Cory Steiner, superintendent at Northern Cass Public Schools; students; and educators, like 2019 ND Teacher of the Year Kayla Delzer.

12

|

ND United Voices

Every Tuesday, you can tune into new episodes featuring conversations with even more of the best and brightest in our state, who are directly involved with the education process. Each episode is posted on our website, as well as on social media at www.facebook.com/thecuttinged and www.twitter.com/thecuttinged.

Additionally, you can find The Cutting Ed podcast on your favorite podcasting platforms, such as iTunes, Spreaker, Google Play, iHeart Radio, Soundcloud and more! Just search for The Cutting Ed wherever you get your favorite podcasts from, and subscribe. It’s easy! Each episode is incredibly informative for North Dakota educators and anyone interested in the tremendous job our schools are doing in the state at preparing young people for their future.

We hope to see and hear you on The Cutting Ed!

My classes are all inclusively refugee and immigrant. We have sheltered instruction at Fargo South, which means my English 1 class will be only refugee and immigrant students or ELL learners that are basic English just learning, ‘My name is …’ and very basic, and then we go all the way up to English 4, which our kids that are ready to transition into a mainstream English classroom, and they’re able to write a short story and explore ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ Looking at the difference of levels that we have here at Fargo South …what I want to do for these students is I want to be able to give them life skills. I’ve really focused on stressing responsibility, stressing positive attitude and coming in here with respect. And I think those are the very core values of my classroom. The first day of school, I take all my classes outside, and we do team-building exercises. We actually do relay races, and they tie their legs together and they run. And they come back, and they complain that it’s so warm outside. I usually say, ‘Just wait. It’s going to get colder.’ (laughs) So it’s really about first forming that team in the classroom, and really, a family. Once we have that kind of core talk about why we’re here, why we want to learn what are we going to use, then we can continue with the content.”

Wendy Bichler, eighth-grade teacher in Ashley:

“ Jessica Schmidt, third-grade teacher in Ashley:

“

Part of it is that I’ve started the last few years really focusing on the writing process. And with the writing process, part of it is I want to actually do the editing and the proofreading.… I know I’m in a small class, but when there’s only one of me, and it’s so much easier when I have those eighth-graders or those seventh-graders or whichever grade, and they can work one-on-one with the students and everyone is working at the same time … it makes my life easier, and the third-graders absolutely love it.”

This school has always been my home.

Because my mom was a special ed teacher here for 35 years. She just retired last year.

So this has been my home, and it was kind of awesome to come back to my home. And I didn’t have to worry about making friends because I already knew all the teachers here. (laughs) It was an easy transition, and everybody treated me like a colleague. Which was like, are they going to think of me as a student still, or are they going to treat me like a colleague? And it was like, hey, welcome to the teaching world. It was awesome.”

ndunited.org

|

13

so vital to the future of North Dakota. While this is a good start, we will continue to work with lawmakers to find additional money to go into the K-12 funding formula. Equally well received is that school districts will receive the long-sought on-time funding for the students in their schools. This will allow much-needed relief for school districts that have struggled to meet their obligations.

“

We all have the ability and responsibility to contact our legislators.

Gov. Doug Burgum speaking in front of the Legislature

Legislative Preview

By Nick Archuleta NDU President

Governor’s budget proposal is a good start to providing relief

There are thousands of dedicated public employees, including public school teachers, who work tirelessly in service to the people, students and communities of North Dakota.

Governor Doug Burgum has announced an important first step to provide relief to state employees across North Dakota with his proposal to allocate funding to modestly enhance salaries for public employees.

After two years without a salary increase, state employees are appreciative of the acknowledgement that they are indeed deserving of an increase in compensation.

In recent years, many positions in state agencies and in higher education have been eliminated or left unfilled. The result has been that the remaining public employees in these agencies and institutions have been doing more work with fewer colleagues to share the load. This has led to a precipitous drop in morale and, when coupled with a two-year 14

|

ND United Voices

salary freeze, an increase in frustration. The Governor’s proposal of a four-percent salary increase for the first year of the biennium, and a two-percent increase in the second year, may very well be the difference for many between staying in ND and leaving the state to work elsewhere.

We agree with the Governor that public employee pensions and healthcare benefits deserve to be protected. ND United remains committed to working with the Governor and the Legislature to keep these benefits viable well into the future. Every agency head recognizes these benefits as irreplaceable tools to recruit and retain the best public employees.

K-12 educators have similarly been frustrated by flat salaries and flat investment in our state’s system of public education. An increase of two percent for the first year of the biennium, and the same increase for the second year, will be seen quite favorably by those whose work is

”

ND United appreciates what the Governor has proposed regarding salaries for state employees and protection of their earned benefits. We believe that the state can and must do more to invest in our future by investing more in our terrific institutions of higher education, our outstanding public employees and our exceptional system of K-12 education. ND United stands ready to work with Governor Burgum, the North Dakota State Legislature and with the people of ND, whom we serve dutifully each day, to secure an adequate and responsible plan for North Dakota’s future.

GET INVOLVED This legislative session, we need your help!

During the upcoming legislative session, we all have the ability and responsibility to contact our legislators and let them know what the educators and public employees in their district thinks about legislation they are considering. We can be the difference-maker on whether good legislation passes and bad legislation fails!

Commit now to do your part to help make our collective voices heard during session. Go to our website at www.ndunited.org and click on Be An NDU Activist!, or go directly to www. ndunited.org/issues-action/be-an-nd-unitedactivist. Fill out the form, and we’ll add you to

the list of NDU Activists, who are our first line of defense! When policymakers need to hear from you, we will send you Action Alerts via e-mail and text message with the information you need on what to say and how to contact legislators.

Sign up today! It’s easy and will make all the difference for the students and citizens of our great state in providing a better future for all of us.

STAY INFORMED North Dakota United will regularly be providing Legislative Updates during session, to keep you up-to-date on what is happening in the Capitol. Visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ndunited to watch our weekly Facebook Live broadcasts. Watch for the weekly NDUpdate e-newsletter for regular updates as well. Sign up to be an NDU Activist at www.ndunited.org, and we’ll contact you directly by e-mail and text messaging with Action Alerts.

If you haven’t been receiving the NDUpdate e-mail that is sent out each Monday, make sure that we have your correct e-mail address on file. Go to www.ndunited.org and fill in the “Sign Up for Email Updates” form near the bottom with your current e-mail address.

NDU Communications is dedicated to keeping all of our members updated on everything that happens during the 2019 North Dakota Legislative Assembly. Thank you for being ND United! ndunited.org

|

15

so vital to the future of North Dakota. While this is a good start, we will continue to work with lawmakers to find additional money to go into the K-12 funding formula. Equally well received is that school districts will receive the long-sought on-time funding for the students in their schools. This will allow much-needed relief for school districts that have struggled to meet their obligations.

“

We all have the ability and responsibility to contact our legislators.

Gov. Doug Burgum speaking in front of the Legislature

Legislative Preview

By Nick Archuleta NDU President

Governor’s budget proposal is a good start to providing relief

There are thousands of dedicated public employees, including public school teachers, who work tirelessly in service to the people, students and communities of North Dakota.

Governor Doug Burgum has announced an important first step to provide relief to state employees across North Dakota with his proposal to allocate funding to modestly enhance salaries for public employees.

After two years without a salary increase, state employees are appreciative of the acknowledgement that they are indeed deserving of an increase in compensation.

In recent years, many positions in state agencies and in higher education have been eliminated or left unfilled. The result has been that the remaining public employees in these agencies and institutions have been doing more work with fewer colleagues to share the load. This has led to a precipitous drop in morale and, when coupled with a two-year 14

|

ND United Voices

salary freeze, an increase in frustration. The Governor’s proposal of a four-percent salary increase for the first year of the biennium, and a two-percent increase in the second year, may very well be the difference for many between staying in ND and leaving the state to work elsewhere.

We agree with the Governor that public employee pensions and healthcare benefits deserve to be protected. ND United remains committed to working with the Governor and the Legislature to keep these benefits viable well into the future. Every agency head recognizes these benefits as irreplaceable tools to recruit and retain the best public employees.

K-12 educators have similarly been frustrated by flat salaries and flat investment in our state’s system of public education. An increase of two percent for the first year of the biennium, and the same increase for the second year, will be seen quite favorably by those whose work is

”

ND United appreciates what the Governor has proposed regarding salaries for state employees and protection of their earned benefits. We believe that the state can and must do more to invest in our future by investing more in our terrific institutions of higher education, our outstanding public employees and our exceptional system of K-12 education. ND United stands ready to work with Governor Burgum, the North Dakota State Legislature and with the people of ND, whom we serve dutifully each day, to secure an adequate and responsible plan for North Dakota’s future.

GET INVOLVED This legislative session, we need your help!

During the upcoming legislative session, we all have the ability and responsibility to contact our legislators and let them know what the educators and public employees in their district thinks about legislation they are considering. We can be the difference-maker on whether good legislation passes and bad legislation fails!

Commit now to do your part to help make our collective voices heard during session. Go to our website at www.ndunited.org and click on Be An NDU Activist!, or go directly to www. ndunited.org/issues-action/be-an-nd-unitedactivist. Fill out the form, and we’ll add you to

the list of NDU Activists, who are our first line of defense! When policymakers need to hear from you, we will send you Action Alerts via e-mail and text message with the information you need on what to say and how to contact legislators.

Sign up today! It’s easy and will make all the difference for the students and citizens of our great state in providing a better future for all of us.

STAY INFORMED North Dakota United will regularly be providing Legislative Updates during session, to keep you up-to-date on what is happening in the Capitol. Visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ndunited to watch our weekly Facebook Live broadcasts. Watch for the weekly NDUpdate e-newsletter for regular updates as well. Sign up to be an NDU Activist at www.ndunited.org, and we’ll contact you directly by e-mail and text messaging with Action Alerts.

If you haven’t been receiving the NDUpdate e-mail that is sent out each Monday, make sure that we have your correct e-mail address on file. Go to www.ndunited.org and fill in the “Sign Up for Email Updates” form near the bottom with your current e-mail address.

NDU Communications is dedicated to keeping all of our members updated on everything that happens during the 2019 North Dakota Legislative Assembly. Thank you for being ND United! ndunited.org

|

15

Minot Para Given ESP of the Year Denbea McNally awarded for her service to students at Lewis & Clark Elementary

leader who takes her role and responsibilities very seriously. In her professional role, Denbea demonstrates the skills necessary to develop positive working relationships with both the students that she works with but also the teachers, specialists and school staff that she interacts with every day.”

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications

Denbea McNally was named 2019 NDU Education Support Professional of the Year.

The members of North Dakota United and the Minot Education Association are proud to announce that Denbea McNally, a special education paraprofessional at Lewis & Clark Elementary School in Minot, has been selected as the 2019 NDU Education Support Professional of the Year.

A school assembly was held at Lewis & Clark on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018, starting at 10:30 a.m. Remarks were made by Lewis & Clark Principal Pat Slotsve to the entire school, and McNally was announced as the statewide award winner by ND United President Nick Archuleta.

McNally has worked for Minot Public Schools 16

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ND United Voices

for the past eight and a half years, starting at Jim Hill Middle School as a time-out supervisor, and continuing at Lewis & Clark.

Her current work responsibilities include providing one-on-one support for students who have been identified as having an emotional and/or behavioral disorder in kindergarten through fifth grade. She is responsible for implementing behaviorintervention plans, collecting data and providing accommodations specific to each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).

“Denbea exemplifies what the role of an educational support professional represents,” said Tara Landphere, the ED Resource room teacher for Lewis & Clark. “She is a natural

McNally is also a dedicated member of the Minot Education Association, the union of education professionals for Minot Public Schools. Kristi Reinke, president of MEA, has worked with Denbea and credits her for the time she has spent in recruiting new members into MEA and presenting a positive image of what an ESP is and does each day for students.

“In the last few years, Denbea has expressed wanting to take on more leadership roles to be a voice of the ESPs in the district,” Reinke said. “Not only has she accomplished those professional goals, but she has exceeded them by being noticed and recognized by other committees and leadership positions in the district. Denbea has been asked, and was accepted, to be a part of Minot Public School’s new Employee Wellness Program Committee for the entire district, serving as a committee member and a wellness champion for her building. She has also been asked to be part of the new Minot Public Schools Safety Committee, as a voice for all non-teachers.”

The NDU ESP of the Year Award annually recognizes an outstanding ESP member of our state association whose position betters the education profession and the lives of students.

ESP job categories include: paraprofessional, education assistant, secretarial or clerical, custodial, food services, maintenance and trades, transportation, grounds-keeping, security, technology services, health services and others. Leaders of our local associations will nominate individuals each year for the ESP of the Year award, which is selected by a committee of NDU leaders.

(McNally was announced as the NDU ESP of the Year award winner as this issue of United Voices went to print. Stay tuned to our website, www.ndunited.org, and YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/nodakunited for future features on McNally and our other finalists.)

ndunited.org

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17

Minot Para Given ESP of the Year Denbea McNally awarded for her service to students at Lewis & Clark Elementary

leader who takes her role and responsibilities very seriously. In her professional role, Denbea demonstrates the skills necessary to develop positive working relationships with both the students that she works with but also the teachers, specialists and school staff that she interacts with every day.”

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications

Denbea McNally was named 2019 NDU Education Support Professional of the Year.

The members of North Dakota United and the Minot Education Association are proud to announce that Denbea McNally, a special education paraprofessional at Lewis & Clark Elementary School in Minot, has been selected as the 2019 NDU Education Support Professional of the Year.

A school assembly was held at Lewis & Clark on Wednesday, Nov. 28, 2018, starting at 10:30 a.m. Remarks were made by Lewis & Clark Principal Pat Slotsve to the entire school, and McNally was announced as the statewide award winner by ND United President Nick Archuleta.

McNally has worked for Minot Public Schools 16

|

ND United Voices

for the past eight and a half years, starting at Jim Hill Middle School as a time-out supervisor, and continuing at Lewis & Clark.

Her current work responsibilities include providing one-on-one support for students who have been identified as having an emotional and/or behavioral disorder in kindergarten through fifth grade. She is responsible for implementing behaviorintervention plans, collecting data and providing accommodations specific to each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP).

“Denbea exemplifies what the role of an educational support professional represents,” said Tara Landphere, the ED Resource room teacher for Lewis & Clark. “She is a natural

McNally is also a dedicated member of the Minot Education Association, the union of education professionals for Minot Public Schools. Kristi Reinke, president of MEA, has worked with Denbea and credits her for the time she has spent in recruiting new members into MEA and presenting a positive image of what an ESP is and does each day for students.

“In the last few years, Denbea has expressed wanting to take on more leadership roles to be a voice of the ESPs in the district,” Reinke said. “Not only has she accomplished those professional goals, but she has exceeded them by being noticed and recognized by other committees and leadership positions in the district. Denbea has been asked, and was accepted, to be a part of Minot Public School’s new Employee Wellness Program Committee for the entire district, serving as a committee member and a wellness champion for her building. She has also been asked to be part of the new Minot Public Schools Safety Committee, as a voice for all non-teachers.”

The NDU ESP of the Year Award annually recognizes an outstanding ESP member of our state association whose position betters the education profession and the lives of students.

ESP job categories include: paraprofessional, education assistant, secretarial or clerical, custodial, food services, maintenance and trades, transportation, grounds-keeping, security, technology services, health services and others. Leaders of our local associations will nominate individuals each year for the ESP of the Year award, which is selected by a committee of NDU leaders.

(McNally was announced as the NDU ESP of the Year award winner as this issue of United Voices went to print. Stay tuned to our website, www.ndunited.org, and YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/nodakunited for future features on McNally and our other finalists.)

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17

to grow as professionals and interact with peers. “The budget’s cut, and then your travel is cut and they ask you for innovation,” Hart said. “Well, I don’t know innovation because I don’t know any other way to look at the program. If you’d sent me to that conference in Nebraska, we could have talked to our Minnesota counterparts, learned about their law and see what they’re doing differently. And then that encourages innovation and growth.”

Member Profile

Leaving the Public Sector

State employees face an uncertain future, with tempting opportunities elsewhere

At the Public Service Commission, Hart’s job involved inspecting grain elevators and overseeing an insolvency program. The workload was continually increasing as he watched colleagues leave and not be replaced.

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications Pat Hart, outside the state Capitol

This is not your standard United Voices Member Profile. The subject of this article, Patrick Hart, will not be a member of North Dakota United by the time you read this. He won’t be a public employee. This is a Former Member Profile, you could say.

North Dakota United is the statewide union for K-12 educators, higher education faculty and staff, and public employees. Hart was that last classification, a grain warehouse inspector for the Public Service Commission the past three years, and a fertilizer auditor for the Department of Agriculture for two years before that. He was a member of ND United for the last year. He said he would have joined earlier but, like many state employees, he did not know there was a union for him to join.

“I didn’t know it was a thing,” Hart said. “I just joined maybe in January. It was never talked about once in the Capitol. There wasn’t a handout card in our new-hire packet.”

He did follow NDU President Nick Archuleta on Twitter, and came to find out about NDU through that connection. And when his 18

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ND United Voices

income-tax withholdings fell slightly at the beginning of the year with the start of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, he made a decision on how to spend those savings. “I got this tax bump in January, and it was like $50 a month,” he said, “and I thought, I’m just going to ‘stick it to the man’ and join the union with my tax cut.”

Additionally, he recognized that NDU could provide him with a benefit that had been cut with the budget cuts of the past two years: professional development. “At the Ag Department,” he said, “I was part of AFCO, which is the Association of Fertilizer Control Officials. You need that interaction with your counterparts in other states. Say you’re a manager at Best Buy. You can call a manager at Kmart, or you can call other stores and talk about what you do. But when you’re a pesticide regulator, there’s only six of those in the state. You’re not really getting best practices from your neighbor.”

In a culture of state government that is asking for increased “efficiencies” and innovation in order to do more with less, this is made all the more difficult by denying them opportunities

for things on the wall that said ‘Reynolds United Cooperative’ or something so that you remember where you are.”

State employees haven’t received a pay raise in the past two years, and the Governor called on state agencies to make another 10 percent reduction in their budgets. “The Public Service Commission has six divisions, and there’s only two of them that are General Fund-funded.

So, to make the cut, they actually proposed completely eliminating our division.”

As a businessman, Hart said he gets it. “I know it’s not personal,” he said, “it’s just business.

They have to hit a number, and this is how they’re going to do it.”

“Last session, they cut our program from a full-time division director, two full-time field reps and I think we had a half of an administrative assistant,” Hart said, “and they cut that down to one and three-quarter inspectors, a third of an administrative assistant, and then our division director got split three ways. A program that regulates the biggest economy in the state got cut from three and a half people to like two and a third.”

Hart had been running a side business in the evenings and on weekends called Anytime Works with a partner the entire time he was working for the state, and that enterprise has been slowly gaining momentum. “We (pay) rolled a friend of ours full-time in June. … It was just kind of a side business for the last five years that’s been growing and growing.”

While personnel may decrease, the work requirements don’t go away so neatly. Despite the second field auditor in his division retiring and his position being left open to save money, Hart was still able to maintain their inspection schedule. But the strain was getting to him.

Recently, he said it just felt like a good time to step away and do his own thing again. “Every time we go to a new (legislative) session, they’re going to potentially cut you or require a bigger co-pay (for health insurance),” he said. “I kind of just decided that insurance, which is the big elephant in the room, is just another bill. I can make it work.”

“The first two years, I did like 181 inspections at the Public Service Commission,” he said.

“This year it was 243” in 11 months. “It required me to spend two or three nights a week on the road, and it’s a tough thing to do with kids at home,” he said. “We would do one to two inspections a day. So, it was completely normal for me not to know what day it is or what town I’m in. I’d just be in a board room, and you just kind of forget where you are. And you have to look

He said he is looking forward to taking a chance on himself again, and seeing what happens. “I was told, you’ve got to shift down into first gear,” he said. “Slow and steady. I can’t do that. I want to have something on the wall at the end of the day that says: This is what we changed. This is who we impacted.

And it’s just not always there.”

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19

to grow as professionals and interact with peers. “The budget’s cut, and then your travel is cut and they ask you for innovation,” Hart said. “Well, I don’t know innovation because I don’t know any other way to look at the program. If you’d sent me to that conference in Nebraska, we could have talked to our Minnesota counterparts, learned about their law and see what they’re doing differently. And then that encourages innovation and growth.”

Member Profile

Leaving the Public Sector

State employees face an uncertain future, with tempting opportunities elsewhere

At the Public Service Commission, Hart’s job involved inspecting grain elevators and overseeing an insolvency program. The workload was continually increasing as he watched colleagues leave and not be replaced.

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications Pat Hart, outside the state Capitol

This is not your standard United Voices Member Profile. The subject of this article, Patrick Hart, will not be a member of North Dakota United by the time you read this. He won’t be a public employee. This is a Former Member Profile, you could say.

North Dakota United is the statewide union for K-12 educators, higher education faculty and staff, and public employees. Hart was that last classification, a grain warehouse inspector for the Public Service Commission the past three years, and a fertilizer auditor for the Department of Agriculture for two years before that. He was a member of ND United for the last year. He said he would have joined earlier but, like many state employees, he did not know there was a union for him to join.

“I didn’t know it was a thing,” Hart said. “I just joined maybe in January. It was never talked about once in the Capitol. There wasn’t a handout card in our new-hire packet.”

He did follow NDU President Nick Archuleta on Twitter, and came to find out about NDU through that connection. And when his 18

|

ND United Voices

income-tax withholdings fell slightly at the beginning of the year with the start of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, he made a decision on how to spend those savings. “I got this tax bump in January, and it was like $50 a month,” he said, “and I thought, I’m just going to ‘stick it to the man’ and join the union with my tax cut.”

Additionally, he recognized that NDU could provide him with a benefit that had been cut with the budget cuts of the past two years: professional development. “At the Ag Department,” he said, “I was part of AFCO, which is the Association of Fertilizer Control Officials. You need that interaction with your counterparts in other states. Say you’re a manager at Best Buy. You can call a manager at Kmart, or you can call other stores and talk about what you do. But when you’re a pesticide regulator, there’s only six of those in the state. You’re not really getting best practices from your neighbor.”

In a culture of state government that is asking for increased “efficiencies” and innovation in order to do more with less, this is made all the more difficult by denying them opportunities

for things on the wall that said ‘Reynolds United Cooperative’ or something so that you remember where you are.”

State employees haven’t received a pay raise in the past two years, and the Governor called on state agencies to make another 10 percent reduction in their budgets. “The Public Service Commission has six divisions, and there’s only two of them that are General Fund-funded.

So, to make the cut, they actually proposed completely eliminating our division.”

As a businessman, Hart said he gets it. “I know it’s not personal,” he said, “it’s just business.

They have to hit a number, and this is how they’re going to do it.”

“Last session, they cut our program from a full-time division director, two full-time field reps and I think we had a half of an administrative assistant,” Hart said, “and they cut that down to one and three-quarter inspectors, a third of an administrative assistant, and then our division director got split three ways. A program that regulates the biggest economy in the state got cut from three and a half people to like two and a third.”

Hart had been running a side business in the evenings and on weekends called Anytime Works with a partner the entire time he was working for the state, and that enterprise has been slowly gaining momentum. “We (pay) rolled a friend of ours full-time in June. … It was just kind of a side business for the last five years that’s been growing and growing.”

While personnel may decrease, the work requirements don’t go away so neatly. Despite the second field auditor in his division retiring and his position being left open to save money, Hart was still able to maintain their inspection schedule. But the strain was getting to him.

Recently, he said it just felt like a good time to step away and do his own thing again. “Every time we go to a new (legislative) session, they’re going to potentially cut you or require a bigger co-pay (for health insurance),” he said. “I kind of just decided that insurance, which is the big elephant in the room, is just another bill. I can make it work.”

“The first two years, I did like 181 inspections at the Public Service Commission,” he said.

“This year it was 243” in 11 months. “It required me to spend two or three nights a week on the road, and it’s a tough thing to do with kids at home,” he said. “We would do one to two inspections a day. So, it was completely normal for me not to know what day it is or what town I’m in. I’d just be in a board room, and you just kind of forget where you are. And you have to look

He said he is looking forward to taking a chance on himself again, and seeing what happens. “I was told, you’ve got to shift down into first gear,” he said. “Slow and steady. I can’t do that. I want to have something on the wall at the end of the day that says: This is what we changed. This is who we impacted.

And it’s just not always there.”

ndunited.org

|

19

course of about two years,” Johnson said. “We bid it to several vendors to see if they would come to Jamestown and do a shared on-site clinic.”

Teachers Pave Way for Urgent Care

Jamestown Education Association members were part of effort to open clinic for school employees

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications

Healthcare is a big, big subject in our country and state. Accessibility to healthcare is a problem, as well as the ballooning costs.

In Jamestown, the members of the Jamestown Education Association (JEA) recognized some problems they were having with their health insurance and accessibility to care.

Most prominently, the city of Jamestown had no “urgent care” facilities, which are walk-in clinics that focus on delivering ambulatory care that doesn’t fall under the definition of traditional emergency rooms.

Injuries or illnesses that required immediate care, but not serious enough to qualify as an “emergency,” were most often directed toward clinics in either Bismarck or Fargo, which are both approximately 100 miles away from Jamestown.

“We kept hearing from people that they could not get into clinics, how the wait was so long,” said Heather Tomlin-Rohr, a kindergarten teacher and JEA representative on the Health Care Committee. “They were waiting to try to get into a clinic, and whatever was going on with them could be getting worse before they 20

|

ND United Voices

could get medical care. And so, our Health Insurance Committee was brainstorming, what could we do to help our members? We actually worked with a company called Hays Consulting, and (they) started talking about these different organizations, not necessarily schools, but that have satellite clinics right on their campuses.”

Randy Johnson is vice president of Hays Companies, which is a risk-management consulting firm, and was working with Grand Forks Public Schools on their own healthcare cost structure, and was introduced to the superintendent at Jamestown, Robert Lech.

“That led to a discussion very early on in 2015, I think it was, as to understanding about the marketplace, access to health-care services and so forth,” Johnson said. “And it was probably our second or third meeting that we had with the benefits committee, and they said, ‘Well, you know, our biggest problem here is that we have limited access and flexibility for getting urgent care in our marketplace.’”

Johnson began to interview health-care providers in Jamestown to better understand the issue, and discovered that there existed a queue for getting urgent care. “That became the impetus to go to a bidding process over a

Most of the vendors that Hays spoke to about the idea of opening a shared clinic in Jamestown were leery, because “in most cases, to make an on-site clinic work, you need to have between five and seven hundred employees,” Johnson said. But in 2016, Johnson approached Dr. Rachot Vacharothone, the CEO and president of Utah-based Medallus Medical with the concept, and he was interested. “So that became kind of the impetus to start the whole process a couple of years ago,” Johnson said, “and then it opened in March of this year.”

The Medallus Urgent Care Walk-In Clinic is now open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 723 1st Ave. S. The clinic started as the idea of the JEA-JPS Health Care Committee for school employees, but it is also open to the public to use, too.

“

I think an important thing to note is how awesome it is that we were able to bring an urgentcare clinic to Jamestown.

”

“This is the first urgent care in Jamestown,” Emma Mickelson, JEA leader and member of the Health Care Committee, said. “As long as you can walk and talk, you go to urgent care.

In the beginning, we were worried that we would pull people away from emergency care, and Jamestown Hospital told us, ‘Please, pull people away from our Emergency Room.’”

As part of the agreement made with Medallus, the school district pays for a portion of the clinic’s rent and an $18 monthly administration fee per school district employee from the district’s health insurance fund.

Individuals and families in Jamestown with high-deductible insurance plans, which feature low premiums but larger deductibles, can choose to pay a monthly Medallus membership of $50 per person, $90 per couple or $120 per family. That fixed rate and a $10 per-visit fee will cover all services, including tests, equipment and supplies.

“I thought I’d create a program where they can set that insurance aside and pay two dollars a day, so they can get access to the simple stuff,” Vacharothone said.

“Our Health Insurance Fund pays almost like a subscription for each member,” Mickelson said.

“So it seems too good to be true to say that it’s free, but the pool of money is paying it. But because it’s such a reduced cost when it comes to actual appointment costs, it’s a benefit.”

A worksite medical clinics survey done by Mercer and the National Association of Worksite Health Centers in 2018 showed that one-third of all organizations with 5,000 or more employees now provide a general medical clinic at or near the worksite. Half of employers who measured the return on investment (ROI) from their on-site clinics reported an ROI of 1.5 or higher. That means for every dollar invested, they have saved a dollar and a half.

“I think an important thing to note is how awesome it is that we were able to bring an urgent-care clinic to Jamestown,” TomlinRohr said. Mickelson agreed, and spoke from her own personal experience how much it has helped her and her family. “I went in and they were like, ‘You told us what was wrong, and how are you feeling right now?’ And they made sure I had everything I needed to walk out and start feeling better. That philosophy was really important when Medallus was picked, they want you to feel better right now, to go in sooner instead of waiting until you’re super sick.” ndunited.org

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21

course of about two years,” Johnson said. “We bid it to several vendors to see if they would come to Jamestown and do a shared on-site clinic.”

Teachers Pave Way for Urgent Care

Jamestown Education Association members were part of effort to open clinic for school employees

By Kelly Hagen NDU Communications

Healthcare is a big, big subject in our country and state. Accessibility to healthcare is a problem, as well as the ballooning costs.

In Jamestown, the members of the Jamestown Education Association (JEA) recognized some problems they were having with their health insurance and accessibility to care.

Most prominently, the city of Jamestown had no “urgent care” facilities, which are walk-in clinics that focus on delivering ambulatory care that doesn’t fall under the definition of traditional emergency rooms.

Injuries or illnesses that required immediate care, but not serious enough to qualify as an “emergency,” were most often directed toward clinics in either Bismarck or Fargo, which are both approximately 100 miles away from Jamestown.

“We kept hearing from people that they could not get into clinics, how the wait was so long,” said Heather Tomlin-Rohr, a kindergarten teacher and JEA representative on the Health Care Committee. “They were waiting to try to get into a clinic, and whatever was going on with them could be getting worse before they 20

|

ND United Voices

could get medical care. And so, our Health Insurance Committee was brainstorming, what could we do to help our members? We actually worked with a company called Hays Consulting, and (they) started talking about these different organizations, not necessarily schools, but that have satellite clinics right on their campuses.”

Randy Johnson is vice president of Hays Companies, which is a risk-management consulting firm, and was working with Grand Forks Public Schools on their own healthcare cost structure, and was introduced to the superintendent at Jamestown, Robert Lech.

“That led to a discussion very early on in 2015, I think it was, as to understanding about the marketplace, access to health-care services and so forth,” Johnson said. “And it was probably our second or third meeting that we had with the benefits committee, and they said, ‘Well, you know, our biggest problem here is that we have limited access and flexibility for getting urgent care in our marketplace.’”

Johnson began to interview health-care providers in Jamestown to better understand the issue, and discovered that there existed a queue for getting urgent care. “That became the impetus to go to a bidding process over a

Most of the vendors that Hays spoke to about the idea of opening a shared clinic in Jamestown were leery, because “in most cases, to make an on-site clinic work, you need to have between five and seven hundred employees,” Johnson said. But in 2016, Johnson approached Dr. Rachot Vacharothone, the CEO and president of Utah-based Medallus Medical with the concept, and he was interested. “So that became kind of the impetus to start the whole process a couple of years ago,” Johnson said, “and then it opened in March of this year.”

The Medallus Urgent Care Walk-In Clinic is now open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 723 1st Ave. S. The clinic started as the idea of the JEA-JPS Health Care Committee for school employees, but it is also open to the public to use, too.

“

I think an important thing to note is how awesome it is that we were able to bring an urgentcare clinic to Jamestown.

”

“This is the first urgent care in Jamestown,” Emma Mickelson, JEA leader and member of the Health Care Committee, said. “As long as you can walk and talk, you go to urgent care.

In the beginning, we were worried that we would pull people away from emergency care, and Jamestown Hospital told us, ‘Please, pull people away from our Emergency Room.’”

As part of the agreement made with Medallus, the school district pays for a portion of the clinic’s rent and an $18 monthly administration fee per school district employee from the district’s health insurance fund.

Individuals and families in Jamestown with high-deductible insurance plans, which feature low premiums but larger deductibles, can choose to pay a monthly Medallus membership of $50 per person, $90 per couple or $120 per family. That fixed rate and a $10 per-visit fee will cover all services, including tests, equipment and supplies.

“I thought I’d create a program where they can set that insurance aside and pay two dollars a day, so they can get access to the simple stuff,” Vacharothone said.

“Our Health Insurance Fund pays almost like a subscription for each member,” Mickelson said.

“So it seems too good to be true to say that it’s free, but the pool of money is paying it. But because it’s such a reduced cost when it comes to actual appointment costs, it’s a benefit.”

A worksite medical clinics survey done by Mercer and the National Association of Worksite Health Centers in 2018 showed that one-third of all organizations with 5,000 or more employees now provide a general medical clinic at or near the worksite. Half of employers who measured the return on investment (ROI) from their on-site clinics reported an ROI of 1.5 or higher. That means for every dollar invested, they have saved a dollar and a half.

“I think an important thing to note is how awesome it is that we were able to bring an urgent-care clinic to Jamestown,” TomlinRohr said. Mickelson agreed, and spoke from her own personal experience how much it has helped her and her family. “I went in and they were like, ‘You told us what was wrong, and how are you feeling right now?’ And they made sure I had everything I needed to walk out and start feeling better. That philosophy was really important when Medallus was picked, they want you to feel better right now, to go in sooner instead of waiting until you’re super sick.” ndunited.org

|

21

erclip

With One Red Pap

or uses special ss fe ro p n so n ki ic D thics in business e h ac te to ct je ro p writing

By Michelle Stevier-Johanson, NDU member

One of the ongoing challenges in today’s higher education is the need to ensure that students are prepared for the writing they will do in their post-college careers. Dr. Debora Dragseth, a professor in Dickinson State University’s School of Business and Entrepreneurship and member of North Dakota United, has responded to this challenge with a signature assignment based on a popular TedTalk and book by Kyle MacDonald, about his experiences of starting with one red paperclip, and bartering progressively until, within 17 trades, he had “traded up” to a house.Recently, Dragseth sat down to discuss her signature assignment and suggestions for other faculty who need or want to make writing a key component of their courses.

MSJ: Could you tell me how this project developed? What instigated it? What student and employer needs were you seeking to address?

DD: The Red Paperclip Project has gone on for five years now. It’s had an impact in so many different ways. Students are interacting with the campus and the community because of their class work. They are giving back to the community with the project, too, completing the circle of giving that is the foundation of the course. Early on I realized that we needed to turn the results of the students’ last trade into a charitable action. So we use our Red Paperclip items to create a silent auction at the end of the semester, and the students research charities in town and decide where they want the dollars from the auction to go. Students have raised a 22

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ND United Voices

lot of money for charity. And they’ve learned the lesson of the giver, Grant’s point about what happens in the long run. You end up in a better place. You’ve gained more by staying ethical.

MSJ: What tips or suggestions do you have for other faculty who are thinking about bringing writing into their classes?

DD: It’s good for students to reflect on what they’ve done. Reflective writing enables them to process their experiences and observe their own growth. It isn’t just me telling them that they’ve grown; there it is, in black and white, on the paper. They really are writing themselves into a different place at the end of the semester.

They start the semester as one type of student — someone who doesn’t barter, who doesn’t easily engage others in conversation, someone who may avoid eye contact rather than using it to build positive interactions with others.

They end the semester as a student who has a different story — someone who has bartered successfully, who has walked up to total strangers and had successful negotiations or learned from mistakes. Writing about these experiences helps students trace their growth, trace the trajectory of their learning. It helps them see, among other things, the difference in the expectations they have of themselves from class’s beginning to class’s end.

(Read the full interview of Dr. Debora Dragseth, including tips for faculty and for students about the Red Paperclip Project, at our website, www.ndunited.org.)

Higher Education Needs Our Help North Dakota faculty are dedicated to student learning and success

By Dr. Birgit M. Pruess, NDU member

As the faculty advisor on the State Board of Higher Education (SBHE), I used the time between May and November of 2018 to hold face-to-face and virtual meetings with the faculty from our 11 institutions. After a brief presentation on functions of the SBHE and the North Dakota University System Office, faculty were allowed to ask questions and encouraged to express their concerns about higher education in the great state of North Dakota.

There is large overall agreement that the faculty of the State of North Dakota love their students and are highly dedicated to student learning and student success. In fact, faculty from two institutions commented that they would appreciate the focus of higher education to go back to student learning, because they don’t feel that they hear this term often enough. Of course, excellence in learning requires excellence in teaching and that gets us to the current situation of the faculty.

In order to recruit and retain excellent faculty, i) salaries need to be competitive at least nationwide, ii) the institutions will have to offer a solid benefits package, and iii) the tenure policy needs to provide protection to

the faculty. In particular, faculty at our nine regional universities and community/technical colleges receive salaries that are below those of K-12 teachers. While the reasons for this inequity may be the constitution, this situation is nevertheless not bearable.

If we try to hire faculty at starting salaries in the lower $40k range, followed by a lack of raises for the consecutive years and increasing expenses for health care, we realistically are not competitive.

Tightly connected with faculty salaries are faculty benefits, in particular health insurance.

While many faculty expressed gratitude for the budget that was passed by the SBHE in their June meeting, the concern was expressed that the proposed 4 percent raise in faculty salaries may be eradicated by higher expenses for personal and family health before we even know whether we will get the raise.

At the two research universities, many faculty have seen valued colleagues leave their university to an extent that is perceived as larger during the past one and a half years than it has been in previous years.

Increased workload is a topic that was brought up at almost all the institutions. For the colleges, this means an increased teaching load, up to 15 or 18 credits. Besides the obvious increase in work time, faculty also expressed frustration about their own now diminished ability to provide the best learning experience for the students. This lowers faculty morale.

Altogether, the faculty in the State of North Dakota appreciate all efforts by SBHE, NDUS, North Dakota United, and possibly other groups to negotiate a budget that will make us competitive again, that will increase our ability to provide a first class learning experience to the students, and perform research that is valuable for the people in the state of North Dakota. ndunited.org | 23

erclip

With One Red Pap

or uses special ss fe ro p n so n ki ic D thics in business e h ac te to ct je ro p writing

By Michelle Stevier-Johanson, NDU member

One of the ongoing challenges in today’s higher education is the need to ensure that students are prepared for the writing they will do in their post-college careers. Dr. Debora Dragseth, a professor in Dickinson State University’s School of Business and Entrepreneurship and member of North Dakota United, has responded to this challenge with a signature assignment based on a popular TedTalk and book by Kyle MacDonald, about his experiences of starting with one red paperclip, and bartering progressively until, within 17 trades, he had “traded up” to a house.Recently, Dragseth sat down to discuss her signature assignment and suggestions for other faculty who need or want to make writing a key component of their courses.

MSJ: Could you tell me how this project developed? What instigated it? What student and employer needs were you seeking to address?

DD: The Red Paperclip Project has gone on for five years now. It’s had an impact in so many different ways. Students are interacting with the campus and the community because of their class work. They are giving back to the community with the project, too, completing the circle of giving that is the foundation of the course. Early on I realized that we needed to turn the results of the students’ last trade into a charitable action. So we use our Red Paperclip items to create a silent auction at the end of the semester, and the students research charities in town and decide where they want the dollars from the auction to go. Students have raised a 22

|

ND United Voices

lot of money for charity. And they’ve learned the lesson of the giver, Grant’s point about what happens in the long run. You end up in a better place. You’ve gained more by staying ethical.

MSJ: What tips or suggestions do you have for other faculty who are thinking about bringing writing into their classes?

DD: It’s good for students to reflect on what they’ve done. Reflective writing enables them to process their experiences and observe their own growth. It isn’t just me telling them that they’ve grown; there it is, in black and white, on the paper. They really are writing themselves into a different place at the end of the semester.

They start the semester as one type of student — someone who doesn’t barter, who doesn’t easily engage others in conversation, someone who may avoid eye contact rather than using it to build positive interactions with others.

They end the semester as a student who has a different story — someone who has bartered successfully, who has walked up to total strangers and had successful negotiations or learned from mistakes. Writing about these experiences helps students trace their growth, trace the trajectory of their learning. It helps them see, among other things, the difference in the expectations they have of themselves from class’s beginning to class’s end.

(Read the full interview of Dr. Debora Dragseth, including tips for faculty and for students about the Red Paperclip Project, at our website, www.ndunited.org.)

Higher Education Needs Our Help North Dakota faculty are dedicated to student learning and success

By Dr. Birgit M. Pruess, NDU member

As the faculty advisor on the State Board of Higher Education (SBHE), I used the time between May and November of 2018 to hold face-to-face and virtual meetings with the faculty from our 11 institutions. After a brief presentation on functions of the SBHE and the North Dakota University System Office, faculty were allowed to ask questions and encouraged to express their concerns about higher education in the great state of North Dakota.

There is large overall agreement that the faculty of the State of North Dakota love their students and are highly dedicated to student learning and student success. In fact, faculty from two institutions commented that they would appreciate the focus of higher education to go back to student learning, because they don’t feel that they hear this term often enough. Of course, excellence in learning requires excellence in teaching and that gets us to the current situation of the faculty.

In order to recruit and retain excellent faculty, i) salaries need to be competitive at least nationwide, ii) the institutions will have to offer a solid benefits package, and iii) the tenure policy needs to provide protection to

the faculty. In particular, faculty at our nine regional universities and community/technical colleges receive salaries that are below those of K-12 teachers. While the reasons for this inequity may be the constitution, this situation is nevertheless not bearable.

If we try to hire faculty at starting salaries in the lower $40k range, followed by a lack of raises for the consecutive years and increasing expenses for health care, we realistically are not competitive.

Tightly connected with faculty salaries are faculty benefits, in particular health insurance.

While many faculty expressed gratitude for the budget that was passed by the SBHE in their June meeting, the concern was expressed that the proposed 4 percent raise in faculty salaries may be eradicated by higher expenses for personal and family health before we even know whether we will get the raise.

At the two research universities, many faculty have seen valued colleagues leave their university to an extent that is perceived as larger during the past one and a half years than it has been in previous years.

Increased workload is a topic that was brought up at almost all the institutions. For the colleges, this means an increased teaching load, up to 15 or 18 credits. Besides the obvious increase in work time, faculty also expressed frustration about their own now diminished ability to provide the best learning experience for the students. This lowers faculty morale.

Altogether, the faculty in the State of North Dakota appreciate all efforts by SBHE, NDUS, North Dakota United, and possibly other groups to negotiate a budget that will make us competitive again, that will increase our ability to provide a first class learning experience to the students, and perform research that is valuable for the people in the state of North Dakota. ndunited.org | 23

What It Takes To Advocate

NDU members gather in Bismarck for Advocacy Conference North Dakota United hosted our 2018 Advocacy Conference in Bismarck at the Ramada Conference Center on Saturday, Dec. 1. Members from across the state come together to focus our collective energy on relevant issues for all educators and public employees, including the 2019 ND legislative session, how to take action, school safety, bargaining for the common good, organizing 101 and public relations.

This one-day event featured a panel of policymakers, including North Dakota University System (NDUS) Chancellor Mark Hagerott, Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Kirsten Baesler, Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) executive director Scott Miller, and state Sens. Erin Oban and Dick Dever; break-out sessions; and interactive activities.

In early 2019, we will host our 2019 NDU Bargaining Conference. Stay tuned to our website at www.ndunited.org for more information on that and all upcoming NDU events!

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What It Takes To Advocate

NDU members gather in Bismarck for Advocacy Conference North Dakota United hosted our 2018 Advocacy Conference in Bismarck at the Ramada Conference Center on Saturday, Dec. 1. Members from across the state come together to focus our collective energy on relevant issues for all educators and public employees, including the 2019 ND legislative session, how to take action, school safety, bargaining for the common good, organizing 101 and public relations.

This one-day event featured a panel of policymakers, including North Dakota University System (NDUS) Chancellor Mark Hagerott, Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Kirsten Baesler, Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) executive director Scott Miller, and state Sens. Erin Oban and Dick Dever; break-out sessions; and interactive activities.

In early 2019, we will host our 2019 NDU Bargaining Conference. Stay tuned to our website at www.ndunited.org for more information on that and all upcoming NDU events!

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WILL YOU BE A LEADER? ND United will be holding elections for officers in 2019

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UPCOMING NDU

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES

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The NDU offices of President, Vice President of Education, Vice President of Public Employees and NEA Director are up for election in 2019. The elections will be held at the 2019 NDU Regional Assemblies, which have been scheduled for the East on April 6, 2019, in Fargo and for the West on April 13, 2019, in Bismarck. Nick Archuleta, NDU President; Karen Christensen, Vice President of Education; and Gary Feist, Vice President of Public Employees, are all eligible to run for another three-year term. National Education Association (NEA) Director Karen Askerooth has completed two terms and is not eligible to run again.

NEA Representative Assembly (RA) delegates for North Dakota will also be elected at the 2019 Regional Assemblies. The 2019 NEA RA will be held in Houston, Texas, on July 2-5, 2019. North Dakota is allowed 15 delegates, but current Board members are eligible to attend and those choosing to attend will be subtracted from the 15 prior to the election. The number of delegate positions open will be announced in January.

If you are interested in running for any of these positions, you must file a nominating petition signed by 50 active members in good standing by Feb. 15, 2019.

Request a petition for office or RA Delegate by contacting Ellie Sharbono at ellie.sharbono@ndunited.org.

The retired and student officers are elected by their constituencies.

The slots open on the NDU-Retired Advisory Board are: • Vice President • NE Member • SE Member • SW Member • NW Member • Public Employees Member Candidates for NDU-Retired offices must notify NDU by March 15, 2019, of their intent to run for office by contacting Sarah Keiser Johnson at 701-223-0450 or sarah.johnson@ndunited.org.

Any candidates interested in advertising in United Voices should contact editor Kelly Hagen at kelly.hagen@ndunited.org.

North Dakota United is proud to announce the following Professional Development opportunities. For specific information on course dates and to register, please visit ndunited.org and click on Events.

MINDFUL YOU, MINDFUL ME PART 2: This course is a continuation of the skills acquired through Mindful You, Mindful Me Part 1 into the creation of a mindful classroom. Self-care is an essential part of the work of teachers and can contribute to a more positive school environment and better outcomes for students. This is a blended learning course using in-person sessions, online work, and a book study.

Member cost: $65 (no credit) or $100 (1 credit) Non-member cost: $125 (no credit) or $250 (1 credit) Student Member cost: $0 (no credit) Available for 1 graduate credit through the University of North Dakota Course locations: Bismarck/Mandan; Dickinson; Fargo; Grand Forks; Minot; and Williston

ONLINE BOOK STUDIES: Member cost: $65 (no credit) or $100 (1 credit) Non-member cost: $125 (no credit) or $250 (1 credit) Student Member cost: $0 (no credit) Available for 1 graduate credit through the University of North Dakota Book studies are focused around the following topics: Child Trauma, Student Mental Health, Personal Management, Mindfulness, Ethics, Engaged Learning, and Innovation NEA MICRO-CREDENTIALS: NEA now offers over 100 micro-credentials for educators, created by educators, and reviewed by educators. Microcredentials offer on-demand personalized learning experiences for educators. The learning happens anywhere, anytime. By offering an entire ecosystem of over 100 microcredentials, empowered educators are given an opportunity to learn and be recognized for skills and knowledge targeted to support successful students.

Current NEA Micro-Credential stacks include: · Bully and Sexual Harassment Prevention

EDUCATOR ETHICS:

· I Can Do it-Classroom Management

This course reviews ethics as defined by the ND Educational Standards and Practices Board. Participants examine various ethical situations along with actual cases that the board has addressed including: technology dos and don’ts; contracts and resignations; relationships with students, parents, and colleagues, and; the dichotomy of a school employee’s life. It includes decision-making methodologies and is a highly interactive course.

· ESSA-Opportunity and Voice · Working with English Language Learners · Cooperating Teacher · Early Career Educator (InTASC) · Creating Safe School Spaces for LGBTQ Students · National Board Five Core Propositions

Member cost: $65 (no credit), $100 (1 credit), or $200 (2 credits)

· Teacher Leadership Institute Pathway Competencies

Non-member cost: $125 (no credit), $250 (1 credit), or $500 (2 credits)

Non-member cost: $250 (1 credit)

Student Member cost: $0 (no credit)

Member cost: $75 (1 credit) Available for 1 graduate credit through the University of North Dakota

Available for 1 or 2 graduate credits through the University of North Dakota

2019 PROFESSIONAL GROWTH INSTITUTE:

Course locations: Bismarck/Mandan; Bottineau; Bowman; Carrington; Cavalier; Devils Lake; Dickinson; Fargo; Grand Forks; Jamestown; Kenmare; Killdeer; Mayville; Rugby; Stanley/Tioga; Underwood, and Williston

We StaND United: The 2019 Professional Growth Institute on Supporting Healthy Communities will be held at the Radisson in Bismarck on June 10-12, 2019.

Information will be shared on www.ndunited.org as soon as it is available.

Thanks to the Great Public Schools grant from the National Education Association, all professional development courses are discounted for North Dakota United members through June 1, 2019.

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WILL YOU BE A LEADER? ND United will be holding elections for officers in 2019

WE

UPCOMING NDU

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSES

T N A

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U O Y

The NDU offices of President, Vice President of Education, Vice President of Public Employees and NEA Director are up for election in 2019. The elections will be held at the 2019 NDU Regional Assemblies, which have been scheduled for the East on April 6, 2019, in Fargo and for the West on April 13, 2019, in Bismarck. Nick Archuleta, NDU President; Karen Christensen, Vice President of Education; and Gary Feist, Vice President of Public Employees, are all eligible to run for another three-year term. National Education Association (NEA) Director Karen Askerooth has completed two terms and is not eligible to run again.

NEA Representative Assembly (RA) delegates for North Dakota will also be elected at the 2019 Regional Assemblies. The 2019 NEA RA will be held in Houston, Texas, on July 2-5, 2019. North Dakota is allowed 15 delegates, but current Board members are eligible to attend and those choosing to attend will be subtracted from the 15 prior to the election. The number of delegate positions open will be announced in January.

If you are interested in running for any of these positions, you must file a nominating petition signed by 50 active members in good standing by Feb. 15, 2019.

Request a petition for office or RA Delegate by contacting Ellie Sharbono at ellie.sharbono@ndunited.org.

The retired and student officers are elected by their constituencies.

The slots open on the NDU-Retired Advisory Board are: • Vice President • NE Member • SE Member • SW Member • NW Member • Public Employees Member Candidates for NDU-Retired offices must notify NDU by March 15, 2019, of their intent to run for office by contacting Sarah Keiser Johnson at 701-223-0450 or sarah.johnson@ndunited.org.

Any candidates interested in advertising in United Voices should contact editor Kelly Hagen at kelly.hagen@ndunited.org.

North Dakota United is proud to announce the following Professional Development opportunities. For specific information on course dates and to register, please visit ndunited.org and click on Events.

MINDFUL YOU, MINDFUL ME PART 2: This course is a continuation of the skills acquired through Mindful You, Mindful Me Part 1 into the creation of a mindful classroom. Self-care is an essential part of the work of teachers and can contribute to a more positive school environment and better outcomes for students. This is a blended learning course using in-person sessions, online work, and a book study.

Member cost: $65 (no credit) or $100 (1 credit) Non-member cost: $125 (no credit) or $250 (1 credit) Student Member cost: $0 (no credit) Available for 1 graduate credit through the University of North Dakota Course locations: Bismarck/Mandan; Dickinson; Fargo; Grand Forks; Minot; and Williston

ONLINE BOOK STUDIES: Member cost: $65 (no credit) or $100 (1 credit) Non-member cost: $125 (no credit) or $250 (1 credit) Student Member cost: $0 (no credit) Available for 1 graduate credit through the University of North Dakota Book studies are focused around the following topics: Child Trauma, Student Mental Health, Personal Management, Mindfulness, Ethics, Engaged Learning, and Innovation NEA MICRO-CREDENTIALS: NEA now offers over 100 micro-credentials for educators, created by educators, and reviewed by educators. Microcredentials offer on-demand personalized learning experiences for educators. The learning happens anywhere, anytime. By offering an entire ecosystem of over 100 microcredentials, empowered educators are given an opportunity to learn and be recognized for skills and knowledge targeted to support successful students.

Current NEA Micro-Credential stacks include: · Bully and Sexual Harassment Prevention

EDUCATOR ETHICS:

· I Can Do it-Classroom Management

This course reviews ethics as defined by the ND Educational Standards and Practices Board. Participants examine various ethical situations along with actual cases that the board has addressed including: technology dos and don’ts; contracts and resignations; relationships with students, parents, and colleagues, and; the dichotomy of a school employee’s life. It includes decision-making methodologies and is a highly interactive course.

· ESSA-Opportunity and Voice · Working with English Language Learners · Cooperating Teacher · Early Career Educator (InTASC) · Creating Safe School Spaces for LGBTQ Students · National Board Five Core Propositions

Member cost: $65 (no credit), $100 (1 credit), or $200 (2 credits)

· Teacher Leadership Institute Pathway Competencies

Non-member cost: $125 (no credit), $250 (1 credit), or $500 (2 credits)

Non-member cost: $250 (1 credit)

Student Member cost: $0 (no credit)

Member cost: $75 (1 credit) Available for 1 graduate credit through the University of North Dakota

Available for 1 or 2 graduate credits through the University of North Dakota

2019 PROFESSIONAL GROWTH INSTITUTE:

Course locations: Bismarck/Mandan; Bottineau; Bowman; Carrington; Cavalier; Devils Lake; Dickinson; Fargo; Grand Forks; Jamestown; Kenmare; Killdeer; Mayville; Rugby; Stanley/Tioga; Underwood, and Williston

We StaND United: The 2019 Professional Growth Institute on Supporting Healthy Communities will be held at the Radisson in Bismarck on June 10-12, 2019.

Information will be shared on www.ndunited.org as soon as it is available.

Thanks to the Great Public Schools grant from the National Education Association, all professional development courses are discounted for North Dakota United members through June 1, 2019.

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Local Level North Dakota United has more than 180 locals and chapters across the state, in every county, city, town and community. In higher education, K-12 schools and city, county and state government, our locals and chapters ARE North Dakota United.

With the new look of United Voices, the official publication of ND United, we are launching a new feature called Local Level of photos from across the state of local events, including fundraisers, forums, community outreach, social events and more!

Please send them to: Email: kelly.hagen@ndunited.org PM them on our Facebook page: facebook.com/ndunited Twitter account: twitter.com/ndunited, or Instagram: instagram.com/northdakotaunited

We want to use your pictures for publication in the Local Level!

We look forward to seeing you all on the Local Level!

SUPPLY SWAP October 11, 2018 The members of the Grand Forks Education Association hosted their first-ever School Supply Swap & Sell at the Hilton Garden Inn on Thursday, Oct. 11. Educators and vendors were able to sell or swap their wares to and with their fellow members of GFEA. “We wanted to host the Teacher Sell & Swap for two primary purposes,” said Amanda Weston Cailler, president of GFEA. “First, we want to help support the teachers’ side businesses! Teachers work hard, and often must supplement their income. We want to buy from them! Secondly, we wanted an opportunity to educate our teachers on membership benefits and rights and give them a chance to connect to the NDU chapter and the local chapter. Thirdly, we wanted some fellowship! To get to know teachers from other buildings.”

SELF DEFENSE

November 16, 2018

The world can be a dangerous place, and protecting oneself from those who would seek to hurt you is a skill worth learning. The leadership team at the Bismarck Education Association recognized that need and responded by scheduling a Self-Defense Safety Course for their members at the North Dakota United Bismarck office on Thursday evening, Nov. 16.

“Our members are very important to us and their safety is something that our organization makes a priority through negotiating and advocacy,” said Kari Nehls, BEA PR officer. “While speaking with members, we hear that safety is important in all aspects of their life; both inside and outside of the classroom. We are fortunate to have a member, Kris Ehrmantraut, who is an expert in selfdefense to turn to, to lead this class.”

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November 29, 2018 NDSU FORUM North Dakota United members at North Dakota State University attended an NDU@NDSU Legislative Forum on Thursday, Nov. 29, in the Meadow Lark Room at the NDSU Memorial Union.

Ten legislators from across Cass County took questions from the chapter’s leadership council and the audience.

Constituents brought up several topics, including healthcare for graduate students, public employees’ rights to advocate or engage with Legislature, the difficulty that staff face in making ends meet on the lower end of income scale, and the difficulties that institutions face in recruiting and retaining high-quality faculty.

Legislators brought up issues of their own, including reinstating the oil-extraction tax, support for revenue-generating bills, opposition to attempts to change the healthcare plan for public employees and the formation of a Cass County caucus to advance eastern ND interests.

SANTA STORY

December 3, 2018

Members of the Bismarck Education Association were treated to a special guest on Monday, Dec. 3, when Santa and Mrs. Claus dropped by the Highland Acres Elementary gym for a membersonly event. Mr. and Mrs. Claus read stories to the assembled children, and cookies were served.

Parents could take their own pictures of their kids with Santa and his wife.

December 5, 2018

SOCKTOBER

The members of the Minot Education Association organized an effort they called Socktober to collect socks for donation to the Minot Homeless Coalition. On Wednesday, Dec. 5, MEA and North Dakota United member Holly Dewitz dropped off 1,700 pairs of socks for donation!

“We at the Minot Area Homeless Coalition are extremely grateful for this donation,” said MAHC executive director Mac McLeod. “Many of us take having clean socks for granted, but when you have none, it becomes a treasure. I have known Holly for many years and have always loved her thoughtfulness, kindness and caring for others. Once again, Holly, thank you for a job well done.”

NDPE SOCIAL

December 13, 2018

Public employees and higher education faculty and staff have begun meeting monthly in Bismarck for North Dakota Public Employees (NDPE) socials at the Bismarck NDU office. Members and potential members meet for refreshments, conversation and to network and strategize.

At the NDPE social on Thursday, Dec. 13, members discussed the Governor’s budget proposal and how they can work together to affect positive outcomes during the upcoming legislative session. Everyone in attendance signed up for our NDU Member Activist list, which you can also sign up for at www.ndunited.org and click on Be an NDU Activist! link. ndunited.org

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Local Level North Dakota United has more than 180 locals and chapters across the state, in every county, city, town and community. In higher education, K-12 schools and city, county and state government, our locals and chapters ARE North Dakota United.

With the new look of United Voices, the official publication of ND United, we are launching a new feature called Local Level of photos from across the state of local events, including fundraisers, forums, community outreach, social events and more!

Please send them to: Email: kelly.hagen@ndunited.org PM them on our Facebook page: facebook.com/ndunited Twitter account: twitter.com/ndunited, or Instagram: instagram.com/northdakotaunited

We want to use your pictures for publication in the Local Level!

We look forward to seeing you all on the Local Level!

SUPPLY SWAP October 11, 2018 The members of the Grand Forks Education Association hosted their first-ever School Supply Swap & Sell at the Hilton Garden Inn on Thursday, Oct. 11. Educators and vendors were able to sell or swap their wares to and with their fellow members of GFEA. “We wanted to host the Teacher Sell & Swap for two primary purposes,” said Amanda Weston Cailler, president of GFEA. “First, we want to help support the teachers’ side businesses! Teachers work hard, and often must supplement their income. We want to buy from them! Secondly, we wanted an opportunity to educate our teachers on membership benefits and rights and give them a chance to connect to the NDU chapter and the local chapter. Thirdly, we wanted some fellowship! To get to know teachers from other buildings.”

SELF DEFENSE

November 16, 2018

The world can be a dangerous place, and protecting oneself from those who would seek to hurt you is a skill worth learning. The leadership team at the Bismarck Education Association recognized that need and responded by scheduling a Self-Defense Safety Course for their members at the North Dakota United Bismarck office on Thursday evening, Nov. 16.

“Our members are very important to us and their safety is something that our organization makes a priority through negotiating and advocacy,” said Kari Nehls, BEA PR officer. “While speaking with members, we hear that safety is important in all aspects of their life; both inside and outside of the classroom. We are fortunate to have a member, Kris Ehrmantraut, who is an expert in selfdefense to turn to, to lead this class.”

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November 29, 2018 NDSU FORUM North Dakota United members at North Dakota State University attended an NDU@NDSU Legislative Forum on Thursday, Nov. 29, in the Meadow Lark Room at the NDSU Memorial Union.

Ten legislators from across Cass County took questions from the chapter’s leadership council and the audience.

Constituents brought up several topics, including healthcare for graduate students, public employees’ rights to advocate or engage with Legislature, the difficulty that staff face in making ends meet on the lower end of income scale, and the difficulties that institutions face in recruiting and retaining high-quality faculty.

Legislators brought up issues of their own, including reinstating the oil-extraction tax, support for revenue-generating bills, opposition to attempts to change the healthcare plan for public employees and the formation of a Cass County caucus to advance eastern ND interests.

SANTA STORY

December 3, 2018

Members of the Bismarck Education Association were treated to a special guest on Monday, Dec. 3, when Santa and Mrs. Claus dropped by the Highland Acres Elementary gym for a membersonly event. Mr. and Mrs. Claus read stories to the assembled children, and cookies were served.

Parents could take their own pictures of their kids with Santa and his wife.

December 5, 2018

SOCKTOBER

The members of the Minot Education Association organized an effort they called Socktober to collect socks for donation to the Minot Homeless Coalition. On Wednesday, Dec. 5, MEA and North Dakota United member Holly Dewitz dropped off 1,700 pairs of socks for donation!

“We at the Minot Area Homeless Coalition are extremely grateful for this donation,” said MAHC executive director Mac McLeod. “Many of us take having clean socks for granted, but when you have none, it becomes a treasure. I have known Holly for many years and have always loved her thoughtfulness, kindness and caring for others. Once again, Holly, thank you for a job well done.”

NDPE SOCIAL

December 13, 2018

Public employees and higher education faculty and staff have begun meeting monthly in Bismarck for North Dakota Public Employees (NDPE) socials at the Bismarck NDU office. Members and potential members meet for refreshments, conversation and to network and strategize.

At the NDPE social on Thursday, Dec. 13, members discussed the Governor’s budget proposal and how they can work together to affect positive outcomes during the upcoming legislative session. Everyone in attendance signed up for our NDU Member Activist list, which you can also sign up for at www.ndunited.org and click on Be an NDU Activist! link. ndunited.org

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We Stepped Up for Elections

By Nancy Peterson NDU-Retired President

NEA MEMBERS...DON’T WAIT IN LINE,

t

Register or Log in to NEAMB.com/clickandsave

t

Browse websites of your favorite retailers, including apparel, electronics, movie tickets and much more

t

Enjoy exclusive member deals on your favorite items and brands

t

Earn WOWPoints to use towards future purchases

t

Come back and shop often as new retailers are frequently added

t

Share these benefits with 5 family members or friends

NDU-Retired members must stay vigilant to protect earned benefits

It’s finally over. The election results are in. Did the person(s) or issues that were important to you win? Did you get out asking people to vote or did you make phone calls to ensure that your family, friends and former colleagues know who you are supporting? I certainly hope so. It is our job to elect and pass measures that support public education. I think the NDU staff and board of directors really did an awesome job on this issue this election cycle.

SHOP IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME USING NEA CLICK & SAVE, YOUR MEMBER-ONLY ONLINE MALL!

I, like many other retired members, worked at early voting and on Election Day to make sure that the election process worked and was accomplished in a neutral setting. For the most part, voters came to polls ready to vote. Thank goodness for technology. Many people did not know they could update their address on the NDDOT website so they could vote in the correct precinct. Another issue we found is that many times the husband’s name was on all bills and accounts.

Women were then unable to use that documentation to vote.

Hopefully a lesson was learned.

The only point that all voters could agree on was they wanted the ads and rhetoric to stop. They were tired of the mixed messages being sent out. As one elderly man said, “North Dakota nice went out the window a long time ago.” Jokingly many people asked us to sign a slip of paper that would prove they voted so they could stop the TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads from reaching them.

NEA Members have saved more than $12,010,000 using NEA Click & Save. Start shopping today!

NDU-Retired

news as it showed me that people still care about how our citycounty-state and federal governments are being run. Now let’s see if the promises made will be kept. Know that your NDU leadership will lobby for us.

I am very concerned about how the federal government plans to handle the trillions of dollars of debt. Presently the US Senate is discussing cutting funds for Medicare and Social Security. If this plan comes to fruition, watch out – as those of us on these programs will flood the Capitol with visits, letters and phone calls.

Make sure you correct anyone who keeps saying that these programs are “entitlements.” They are earned benefits, as you and I paid for them over the years and are now eligible to collect from them. There will be a COLA for Social Security next year and the cost of Medicare Part B will increase starting in 2019. Watch for information to follow.

At the state level, the TFFR and PERS funds are still improving.

They are not at the point where we can offer COLAs, but we can only hope that this will be available some time down the road.

The dues for joining NDU-R will be increasing $50 starting September 2019. Come join us now and continue your support of our association. A membership form is listed below or it is available online.

It appears that the number of voters who have early voted or those who used the absentee ballot was larger than expected. This is great

✁

YES, SIGN ME UP NOW IN NDU/NEA/AFT-RETIRED Complete and mail with your check today to NDU-Retired, 301 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501-4020 Name:_____________________________________ Social Security Number:_______________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________________________ City:__________________________________ State:_____________________ Zip:_________________ Phone: _________________________________________ E-mail:_______________________________ Local Association: _______________________ Signature: _____________________________________ Date: _______________________ _______ I wish to join as Annual Retired and pay $61 per year. Mail this form and your check to:

Register now at neamb.com/clickandsave

NDU, 301 N 4th Street, Bismarck, ND 58501-4020. (NDU membership year is from

CS371018 CSNR0814

September 1 to August 31.)

_______ I wish to pay a one-time payment of $466 for Lifetime Retired.

Expected Date of Retirement ___________ (month/year)

_______ I wish to pay one payment of $66 and have 8 (eight) electronic transfers of $50 from my bank

account for Lifetime Retired.

We Stepped Up for Elections

By Nancy Peterson NDU-Retired President

NEA MEMBERS...DON’T WAIT IN LINE,

t

Register or Log in to NEAMB.com/clickandsave

t

Browse websites of your favorite retailers, including apparel, electronics, movie tickets and much more

t

Enjoy exclusive member deals on your favorite items and brands

t

Earn WOWPoints to use towards future purchases

t

Come back and shop often as new retailers are frequently added

t

Share these benefits with 5 family members or friends

NDU-Retired members must stay vigilant to protect earned benefits

It’s finally over. The election results are in. Did the person(s) or issues that were important to you win? Did you get out asking people to vote or did you make phone calls to ensure that your family, friends and former colleagues know who you are supporting? I certainly hope so. It is our job to elect and pass measures that support public education. I think the NDU staff and board of directors really did an awesome job on this issue this election cycle.

SHOP IN THE COMFORT OF YOUR OWN HOME USING NEA CLICK & SAVE, YOUR MEMBER-ONLY ONLINE MALL!

I, like many other retired members, worked at early voting and on Election Day to make sure that the election process worked and was accomplished in a neutral setting. For the most part, voters came to polls ready to vote. Thank goodness for technology. Many people did not know they could update their address on the NDDOT website so they could vote in the correct precinct. Another issue we found is that many times the husband’s name was on all bills and accounts.

Women were then unable to use that documentation to vote.

Hopefully a lesson was learned.

The only point that all voters could agree on was they wanted the ads and rhetoric to stop. They were tired of the mixed messages being sent out. As one elderly man said, “North Dakota nice went out the window a long time ago.” Jokingly many people asked us to sign a slip of paper that would prove they voted so they could stop the TV ads, radio ads, newspaper ads from reaching them.

NEA Members have saved more than $12,010,000 using NEA Click & Save. Start shopping today!

NDU-Retired

news as it showed me that people still care about how our citycounty-state and federal governments are being run. Now let’s see if the promises made will be kept. Know that your NDU leadership will lobby for us.

I am very concerned about how the federal government plans to handle the trillions of dollars of debt. Presently the US Senate is discussing cutting funds for Medicare and Social Security. If this plan comes to fruition, watch out – as those of us on these programs will flood the Capitol with visits, letters and phone calls.

Make sure you correct anyone who keeps saying that these programs are “entitlements.” They are earned benefits, as you and I paid for them over the years and are now eligible to collect from them. There will be a COLA for Social Security next year and the cost of Medicare Part B will increase starting in 2019. Watch for information to follow.

At the state level, the TFFR and PERS funds are still improving.

They are not at the point where we can offer COLAs, but we can only hope that this will be available some time down the road.

The dues for joining NDU-R will be increasing $50 starting September 2019. Come join us now and continue your support of our association. A membership form is listed below or it is available online.

It appears that the number of voters who have early voted or those who used the absentee ballot was larger than expected. This is great

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YES, SIGN ME UP NOW IN NDU/NEA/AFT-RETIRED Complete and mail with your check today to NDU-Retired, 301 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501-4020 Name:_____________________________________ Social Security Number:_______________________ Address: ______________________________________________________________________________ City:__________________________________ State:_____________________ Zip:_________________ Phone: _________________________________________ E-mail:_______________________________ Local Association: _______________________ Signature: _____________________________________ Date: _______________________ _______ I wish to join as Annual Retired and pay $61 per year. Mail this form and your check to:

Register now at neamb.com/clickandsave

NDU, 301 N 4th Street, Bismarck, ND 58501-4020. (NDU membership year is from

CS371018 CSNR0814

September 1 to August 31.)

_______ I wish to pay a one-time payment of $466 for Lifetime Retired.

Expected Date of Retirement ___________ (month/year)

_______ I wish to pay one payment of $66 and have 8 (eight) electronic transfers of $50 from my bank

account for Lifetime Retired.

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North Dakota United 301 N 4th St Bismarck, ND 58501-4020

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ND United Voices

PERMIT NO. 433 BISMARCK, ND