Three of six Grand Forks School Board candidates address teachers' forum

Apr. 23—GRAND FORKS — Two newcomers and one incumbent made the case for their candidacy before the school district's teachers' association in a Tuesday forum for School Board candidates.

Three of the six candidates for Grand Forks School Board — incumbent Amber Flynn and challengers Jay Kleven and Cameron Murphy — participated in the forum at Red River High School.

The Grand Forks Education Association, which represents district teachers and will issue endorsements Wednesday for the four School Board seats on the ballot June 11, hosted the event.

The teachers' association began conducting the biennial forum in 2022 in lieu of one-on-one interviews when that election's 23 candidates made the latter practice impractical, GFEA President Melissa Buchhop said.

Incumbents Eric Lunn and Jeff Manley and candidate Roland Riemers were absent, but submitted written responses to questions for GFEA members' consideration.

Flynn said she wants to continue the work she started during her first two terms on the School Board, including the board's recent turn to focusing more closely on the experience inside schools.

"The focus of the board should be learning about academics and what the students are going through," Flynn said.

Of the three candidates, she dealt most in concrete examples from her time on the board, pointing to what she considers success like last year's teacher salary bump and paternal leave as well as the board's failure to do a better job connecting with community members and "telling (the district's) story" to community members and legislators.

In his opening remarks, Kleven, an engineer with AE2S Engineering, said he wants to champion the value public schools bring to the community in light of increasing skepticism toward public education and legislative pushes for options like school choice.

He was candid about his status as a political neophyte, though he noted he could help facilitate intergovernmental dialogue through his professional contacts, and said he would focus on improving student and teacher well-being as well as facilitating open communication.

"Being standoffish doesn't work in North Dakota," he said. "And the best way to not be standoffish is to talk to people."

Murphy, a businessman who ran for School Board in 2022, said he would "bring more of a data-driven approach" to the school district and push for policies like merit-based pay for teachers based on students' academic improvement — he later extended that to administrators as well — and for greater administrative support for discipline.

He said today's students suffered from a culture of narcissism and described kids as "dumb" and in need of direction.

"We want to instill values where you want to live for others," he said.

Flynn and Kleven both spoke about the need to improve student and teacher well-being and mental health, with Kleven speaking about improving teachers' work environment through "non-monetary benefits" like greater schedule flexibility and Flynn pushing for improved mental health resources.

She notably disclosed she disagreed with administrators' decision to

cut the district's licensed addiction counselor,

one of the only such positions in North Dakota, in next year's budget.

"Unfortunately, sometimes when you're cutting into meat, it goes into bone, and we're going to feel the effects of that," she said, adding she expected administrators to reverse course on that decision in the future. (Flynn told the Herald later that staff cuts were still ultimately up to administrators, as she has said previously.)

Toward the end of the session, one GFEA member asked the board about bridging the gap between district leadership and teachers, particularly given a School Board policy that is viewed as an effective gag order for teachers to address the board on district policy.

Kleven conceded he lacked the board experience to speak about the issue but that he would keep an open door if elected.

Murphy appeared to suggest teachers should simply ignore the policy.

"If it's a policy position that you want to, come to public (comment) and voice your opinion," he said. "If its personnel, go through the proper channels, but don't feel like there's a culture of fear and intimidation, right? ... If you feel like that's the case, we've got a much deeper problem."

Flynn also indicated she was open to changing that policy.

"There's a gap there that's been identified and we need to figure it out and stop saying 'there's a policy in the way,'" Flynn said. "We're a policy-making board, we can figure it out."