UPDATED: GFEA endorses incumbents, Jay Kleven for Grand Forks School Board

Apr. 23—GRAND FORKS — The association representing Grand Forks' public school teachers has endorsed three incumbents and one newcomer for the Grand Forks School Board.

The Grand Forks Education Association backed all three incumbent candidates running for reelection June 11 — Amber Flynn, Jeff Manley, and Eric Lunn — and one newcomer, AE2S Engineering engineer Jay Kleven.

The organization made its announcement in a Wednesday morning Facebook post.

While she said the teachers' association hadn't always seen eye-to-eye with the board, "we think we have a pretty decent School Board right now," GFEA President Melissa Buchhop said.

"We also feel Jay will bring some fresh eyes and a new perspective," she added, noting Kleven, whose four children have all either attended or graduated from the district, would add the voice of a North End resident to the board.

Flynn, Kleven, and fellow outsider Cameron Murphy participated Tuesday evening in a GFEA forum hosted at Red River High School. The organization 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.

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

Flynn said she wanted 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 both 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 wanted to champion the value public schools brought 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 we want to live for others," he said.

He later clarified to the Herald, saying by "dumb" he meant "inexperienced."

"The argument I made was that because kids are, well, kids, they need to be directed by adults and not running the show, as has been the case far too often in the classroom," he wrote in an email.

In their written responses, Manley wrote about increasing the district's general fund reserves to 15% of operating expenses and improving teachers' experience in the district.

Lunn emphasized the importance of retaining teachers and better communication with community stakeholders, citing the controversy over proposed cuts to music and foreign language teachers' full-time equivalency.

"Once there was complete information, the logical decision was easier to see," Lunn wrote.

Both said they would like to see School Board tours of district schools return, which Flynn also alluded to at the GFEA forum.

In the forum, 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."