This week, the Department of Public Instruction is hosting its annual Indian Education Summit at the Capitol in Bismarck. The summit is described as a professional development event for educators, tribal education staff, and administrators. DPI says it’s focused on strengthening Native American education, to provide improved educational outcomes for Native students.
The goal of the summit is to strengthen Indian education through collaboration and “culturally informed practices” – and it works. In 2012, two years before the first annual Indian Education Summit, the graduation rate in public schools for Native students was 52 percent. As of last year, that rate had improved to 83 percent. That’s the kind of positive story I love to cover.
It’s not just a job, it’s fun
North Dakota has a good open meetings law, and when a board or commission goes into executive session, it must have a specific reason. The state’s Industrial Commission uses executive sessions to discuss matters such as loans from the Bank of North Dakota or issues involving the state Mill and Elevator. But any action the Commission takes must happen in open session.
Because the Industrial Commission is one of my beats at the state Capitol, I’ve had some interesting experiences with its executive sessions. Over time, it’s become a point of levity between me and the Commission members.
For example: The Commission was going into executive session to discuss some bank loans. I was the only member of the media to attend that meeting. So, then-Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem made the motion to “Kick Dave Thompson Out.” It was a light moment – we all laughed. Of course, that’s not what the minutes show.
Then, several weeks ago, the motion was made for another executive session. I gathered my recording gear, and said to Attorney General Drew Wrigley that I’d been “kicked out of better places than this.” Governor Armstrong heard me – and he said “I have, too.”
That’s what I appreciate about North Dakota. We can have light-hearted moments like that.
