Month: December 2021

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Winter Break Activities: ways to promote learning at home

Mastering doesn’t have to halt when school’s out!

Xmas is around and New Year’s is continue to a number of days absent. That implies the kids are still at house due to the fact school’s not in session.

If you have watched all of the cartoons your mind can stand, it may possibly be time to check out anything new. Fortunately, Emily Donovan, a Virginia trainer, shared four pleasurable strategies with us and we’re satisfied to move that understanding on to you. She teaches kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd graders at Mount Daniel Elementary Faculty in Falls Church Town.

As an additional reward, each individual of these pursuits encourages discovering making use of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and/or Math. When those five features satisfy, you’ve in all probability heard the conglomeration termed by a different name: “STEAM.”

So let’s STEAM alongside into some entertaining studying options to round out the 12 months!

1. Code a Close friend

Beep-bop! Robot coming by means of. This STEAM activity’s positive to be a hit with budding coders in the dwelling.

  1. Get turns staying the coder and the “robot.” Have the coder give the robotic stage by phase guidance to do different activities. 
  2. The coder desires to recall to be incredibly particular when providing the recommendations. Your “robot” does not know what “walk throughout the room” implies. You have to have to code your “robot” move by stage!
  3. Now switch roles and have the coder develop into the “robot.”

2. Treasure Hunt

Arg! It’s time to wander ye plank, mateys. There’s a buried treasure ashore! And by ashore, we necessarily mean somewhere in the residence. But with a tiny imagination and creative imagination, the whole fam can undertaking out to the Caribbean about wintertime split with this pleasurable action. 

  1. One human being hides a “treasure”. This can be just about anything, even a picture they draw.
  2. That person then writes step-by-phase instructions for how to uncover the “treasure.”
    Example:
    Acquire six methods toward the kitchen desk.
    Change to the right.
    Consider 3 jumps towards the backdoor.
    Transform to the left.
    Take one huge step into the dining space and elevate up the rug at your ft.
  3. If your treasure hunter just cannot obtain the treasure, go again and see the place your code demands to be set. Debug your code and attempt again! 

3. What Can I Do With a Box?

With Christmas occurring just a couple of times back, it’s pretty probably you’ve obtained box just after box hanging around the house suitable now. Ahead of placing the cardboard in the recycling bin, think about ways to turn packaging into further toys. 

  1. Inquire a grownup to assistance you find some packing containers that are all set for recycling. 
  2. What can you transform them into? A rocket ship? A mouse house?
  3. How tall can you stack the boxes? Does stacking them in different approaches alter how tall you can make your tower?

4. Sweet Cane Science

We have obtained to admit. At Dogwood, we like discovering very best when there is foods associated. Specifically if that food’s candy. For this science action, you will need to have a handful of points you can possibly obtain all around your residence this time of 12 months.

  1. Request a grownup to assistance you get a few candy canes. 
  2. Area 1 sweet cane in a glass of h2o.
  3. Put a single candy cane in a glass of vinegar.
  4. Area one sweet cane in a glass of oil.
  5. Which sweet cane dissolved very first? Why do you feel that transpired? Is there an additional liquid you want to test?

Which activity are you most excited to attempt? Send us photos of the pleasurable you’re owning whilst mastering this week! Who is aware of, you could be showcased in an approaching social media put up.

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Kent Gardens Elementary among most crowded schools in FCPS, data shows

Kent Gardens Elementary Faculty (by using Google Maps)

McLean family members are no strangers to overcrowded faculties.

The issues have been concentrated in the McLean Superior Faculty pyramid, where the household of the Highlanders and feeder university Kent Gardens Elementary have been about ability for the previous ten years.

At 121{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} capacity, Kent Gardens is dealing with a single of the greatest space deficits in the county, trailing only Wakefield Forest Elementary College (132{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}) and Oakton Superior University (125{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf}), according to Fairfax County Public Schools’ proposed Funds Advancement Application for fiscal several years 2023-2027.

Potential Deficits Projected to Carry on

Kent Gardens experienced 1,023 college students to commence this school 12 months in a making designed for up to 896 pupils. The school’s profile suggests that enrollment has dipped to 1,019 college students as of November.

There are presently 11 short-term lecture rooms on website, with the most latest addition of trailers coming in the course of the 2019-2020 college year.

According to the CIP, Kent Gardens has been in excess of capability because at the very least 2012, when it experienced 906 learners and was at 111{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} ability. Whilst enrollment is expected to decline more than the following five a long time, the faculty will still be at 118{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} ability with 1,003 students by the 2026-2027 university yr.

McLean Significant College has had more pupils than program potential since the 2011-2012 faculty year. The introduction of a 12-classroom modular before this yr served slash the capacity deficit from 118{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} previous 12 months to 107{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} this fall, although enrollment appears to have developed from 2,347 college students in September to 2,366 learners, as of November.

Enrollment projections for the McLean Higher School pyramid through school yr 2026-2027 (via FCPS)

FCPS claims it is monitoring the school’s ability right after employing a phased boundary adjustment in September that moved an estimated 190 superior college college students and 78 middle college students to the Langley Significant School pyramid.

Even so, the CIP signifies that overcrowding will persist at the very least by means of 2026-2027, when 2,317 learners are projected to be enrolled and the faculty will be at 105{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} or 121{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} ability, dependent on regardless of whether the modular is nevertheless in position.

What FCPS Is Performing

FCPS claims it is analyzing five attainable alternatives for addressing overcrowding at Kent Gardens:

  • Increase performance by reassigning educational spaces inside of a faculty
  • Doable program adjustments
  • Repurpose current faculty services not now getting made use of as colleges or build a new college facility
  • Potential improvement by means of either a modular or setting up addition
  • Prospective boundary adjustment with other educational facilities discovered as acquiring a ability surplus

According to a spokesperson, FCPS has revised its Twin Language Immersion Lottery to take additional college students in Kent Gardens’ boundaries, commencing with the 2022-2023 university yr. The adjust will boost the school’s system capacity of 848 pupils, if not its style ability.

With Tysons expected to double its inhabitants around the next handful of many years and downtown McLean gearing for considerable redevelopment, FCPS is making ready for the influx of people by developing new elementary universities in Dunn Loring and Tysons, along with repurposing the Pimmit Hills Heart.

The reduction promised by those tasks will not occur for a even though, though. Construction on Dunn Loring Elementary Faculty isn’t envisioned to end until 2026, and FCPS isn’t organizing to request funding for the Tysons and Pimmit Hills schools until 2027.

It also remains to be found who will profit from the new universities, since they will not be assigned pyramids until finally boundary scientific tests can be conducted, which takes place to the end of construction, in accordance to FCPS.

The Langley and Marshall superior university pyramids, which provide the McLean and Tysons spots, respectively, aren’t experiencing the exact crowding as McLean, while Spring Hill Elementary School is projected to achieve 101{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} capability in 2026-2027.

Enrollment projections for the Langley Large School pyramid via college calendar year 2026-2027 (by means of FCPS)
Enrollment projections for the Marshall Superior Faculty pyramid through faculty 12 months 2026-2027 (by means of FCPS)

Enrollment in FCPS total is projected to decrease from 176,212 college students this year to 174,326 students in the 2026-2027 faculty calendar year.

Image by using Google Maps

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FARGO BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES REGULAR – InForum

FARGO BOARD OF EDUCATION MINUTES REGULAR MEETING November 23, 2021 The Board of Education of the City of Fargo met in regular session on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, virtually via Zoom webinar teleconferencing. Members present: Jennifer Benson, Jim Johnson, Robin Nelson, Nikkie Gullickson, Rebecca Knutson, Tracie Newman, Seth Holden, Brian Nelson, David Paulson Members absent: none Vice President Robin Nelson called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. She was leading the meeting for President Knutson as President Knutson was not able to virtually join the meeting with her video on but would join via phone. The next Board meeting is planned to be in person as the Board Room at the District Office will by then have the audio-visual equipment installed. Jim Johnson moved approval of the agenda with the addition of an HR Addendum added to 5.B. Tracie Newman seconded the motion. The agenda was approved as presented (Yes: Benson, Gullickson, Holden, Johnson, Knutson, Nelson, B., Nelson, R., Newman, Paulson). Five citizens addressed the Board. Matt Kosak shared concerns about the disinformation being shared at Board meetings during the public comment period and about comments made by Board member Brian Nelson during the November 9 Board meeting on masking. Kristin Sharbono, parent in the Carl Ben Eielson Middle School and South High School attendance area, asked for a response at the November 9 meeting but has not received one. She requested a written response on what was used to determine a mask mandate was needed during instructional time, why it was needed in schools but not in the District Office, and who from Fargo Cass Public Health is meeting with the District. She asked to be informed of when the District is meeting with Fargo Cass Public Health. She asked for a written response on what is being done on staff morale. Vice President Robin Nelson indicated a response was sent to her from the last Board meeting. Jake Schmitz, a parent of two students in the Fargo Public Schools, asked for a written response on who from Fargo Cass Public School is giving recommendations to Dr. Gandhi, what has changed to remove the mask mandate in January, and why is there still a mask mandate for middle and high schools. Cassie Schmidt, with Let Parents Decide That, commended the previous speakers for their comments. She asked for a public response to all the questions asked as stake holders wants those questions. She shared concerns on Board member Brian Nelson’s comments at the November 9 Board meeting on his work as a superintendent in other school districts and concerns on the ESSER plan in Rosholt, ND. She called for Mr. Nelson to resign his position on the Fargo School Board. She indicated that the North Dakota Century Code provided to her in the response to her November 9 questions does not give the authority to the Board to have a mask mandate in schools. Alexis Scott shared concerns on public comment via Zoom teleconferencing and public commenters not being able to be seen on video. She also shared concerns on academic achievement results for diverse students. She also encouraged parents to assist in schools and support teachers. Dr. Patty Cummings, director of special education, shared about the District’s partnership with the University of Minnesota focusing on the special education department. Kim Gibbons of the University of Minnesota provided an overview of the comprehensive program evaluation through the university’s Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement of the FPS special education program. She shared the findings of their evaluation that focused on programming, staffing and infrastructure, and student outcomes. The evaluation included a literature review, focus groups and interviews, staff surveys and a data review. Discussion occurred. It was noted the findings should be looked at for a 3-5 year period and not worked on all at once. The UofM team is working with the District on an implementation plan. FEA President Kim Belgarde shared that during American Education Week the FEA raised $1,000 for the senior high scholarship program. She also shared that the FEA is in favor of reinstating COVID-19 leave for staff members. She welcomes any questions from Board members on the ESSER project Dr. Gandhi will share during his report. Ms. Belgarde shared that the Recess Commission is meeting and will wrap in January, and the Salary Commission has also started meeting. Dr. Gandhi shared a presentation on a project using ESSER funds the District is receiving. The presentation was provided earlier in the day to the Planning Committee; Dr. Gandhi was asked to present it to the full Board. The name of the project is “All For One, One For All.” This project will improve instruction for all students in the Fargo Public Schools and help address critical shortage areas of employment that specifically impact students falling behind by creating a larger pool of internal candidates that can fill the identified critical shortage areas. The project would be to support teachers to receive an additional teaching endorsement and training specific to students with diverse needs. This would improve self-efficacy and instructional practice of all educators by providing each educator with additional tools that can be used to meet the needs of all students. Teachers could receive professional development and an endorsement in special education (special education LD or special education ED) and or in English learners. The project is optional for teachers to participate. Staff members who hold a ND Educator License eligible to receive the additional endorsements approved in this program will receive a one-time payment of $6,000 if they obtain the approved additional endorsement and proof of receiving the additional endorsement is submitted to the FPS HR Department prior to July 29, 2022 with employees receiving a one-time payment of $6,000 on their September paycheck in 2022-23 school year. A second opportunity would be available in the following school year. Employees will not receive compensation for more than one additional endorsement each year. Employees may obtain two additional endorsements for a total additional endorsement of $12,000. FPS will pay for the application fee to ESPB (one time per endorsement) and pay for the Praxis exam fee (one time per endorsement). FPS will also pay instructional staff up to five days of Professional Development at the employee’s daily rate of pay; the dates in 2022 would be scheduled for May 31-June 2 after the school year has ended. Two professional development opportunities would be held in 2023. If participation is low in the program, FPS will then use ESSER funds for previously planned projects. After receiving the endorsement and compensation, the employee is under no commitment to FPS (beyond the annual contract currently in). Staff members will not necessarily be reassigned or required to teach in the new endorsement area. Administration is looking to update administrative policy with this provision for this specific project. Discussion occurred. It was reiterated that the program would be voluntary for participation. Per a request from Jennifer Benson, Dr. Gandhi shared on the Be Legendary Institute, a Board member training program, being offered by ND Department of Public Instruction and how it relates to the Board’s current policy governance model. This topic was also discussed at a recent Governance Committee meeting. Discussion occurred. The deadline to apply for the institute, which costs would be partially covered by ND DPI, is November 30. Tracie Newman moved approval of the Consent Agenda with the HR addendum. Nikkie Gullickson seconded the motion which passed (Yes: Benson, Gullickson, Knutson, Nelson, B., Nelson, R., Newman, Paulson; Absent: Holden, Johnson) thereby causing the following actions to be taken: A. The minutes of the regular meeting of November 9 were approved as written. B. The following Human Resources actions were approved: 1. New Hires: Tony Huseby, Grant Manager – District Office, MSUM/University of MN, Contracted Salary – at 100{e4f787673fbda589a16c4acddca5ba6fa1cbf0bc0eb53f36e5f8309f6ee846cf} – $83,873 – (196 days) 2. Resignations 2021-22: Jordan Johnson, Grade 5 – Jefferson, Dates of Employment: 2021, Effective Date: 11-30-2021; Katharine McArthur, Language Arts – Carl Ben, Dates of Employment: 2008-2021, Effective Date: 11-19-2021; Emily Schultz, Art – Bennett, Dates of Employment: 2006-2021, Effective Date: 12-03-2021 C. The following financial reports were approved: 1. The Fund Balance Report for October 2. The Revenue and Expenditure Reports for October 3. Statement of Bank Reconciliation for October 4. Check register for October Dr. Gandhi shared he was asked by the Governance Committee to share what was previously shared in the Superintendent Report in the Business Section of the agenda. Dr. Gandhi provided an update on COVID-19 positive case data. He shared data of positive cases by school week for the school year and in comparison to the 2020-21 school year, and shared mask exemption, vaccination exemption, and COVID-19 testing program data that allowed students to stay in school due to a COVID-19 close contact. Recently, FPS received updated guidance from Fargo Cass Public Health. As of January 17, FPS will change to a strongly recommended stance on masks in buildings during instructional hours. Per follow up conversations with the ND Department of Health, the district will also change to quarantining being optional for close contacts at that time. Notification to families for positive cases will also change and contact tracing as it is currently conducted will end. Discussion occurred. Jennifer Benson moved the Board of Education end the mask mandate as well as the quarantine mandate for Fargo Public Schools and leave it as a recommendation. David Paulson seconded the motion. Discussion occurred. Upon call of the roll, the motion failed (Yes: Benson, Paulson; No: Gullickson, Knutson, Nelson, B., Nelson, R., Newman; Absent: Holden, Johnson). Due to time, Board Reports were forwarded to the next meeting agenda. The next regular meeting was confirmed for Tuesday, December 14 at 5:30 p.m. There being no further business to come before the Board, Vice President Nelson declared the meeting adjourned at 8:36 p.m. OCTOBER 2021 PAYMENTS MADE 702 COMMUNICATIONS $ 4,631.96 ; A & R ROOFING CO $ 554.00 ; A.S.P. OF MOORHEAD, INC $ 803.66 ; A.S.P. OF MOORHEAD, INC $ 6,432.59 ; A-1 SEWER & DRAIN $ 92.00 ; A-1 SEWER & DRAIN $ 598.00 ; AARFOR, JOHN WILLIAM $ 75.00 ; AARFOR, JOHN WILLIAM $ 150.00 ; AARFOR, JOHN WILLIAM $ 234.50 ; ABDO PUBLISHING COMPANY $ 2,507.80 ; ACME TOOLS $ 2,144.99 ; ACME TOOLS $ 6,192.35 ; ADVANCED ENGRAVING INC $ 97.00 ; ADVANCED ENGRAVING INC $ 13,936.00 ; ADVANTAGE CREDIT BUREAU $ 7,287.00 ; AIR MECHANICAL $ 24,276.37 ; AJANI, THEODORA $ 59.75 ; ALLIED 100 $ 1,664.90 ; ALOMAR, ALI $ 130.00 ; AMAZON.COM $ 51,376.79 ; AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY $ 3,264.46 ; AMERICAN MATH COMPETITIONS $ 246.00 ; AMERICAN RED CROSS $ 496.80 ; ANDERSON STEEL ERECTION AND CRANE SERVICES $ 37,008.95 ; ANDERSON, EDITH $ 508.94 ; ANDERSON, JULIE M $ 35.78 ; ANDERSON’S $ 797.57 ; APPLE COMPUTERS $ 1,048.50 ; APPLE COMPUTERS $ 5,980.00 ; APPLE COMPUTERS $ 22,317.00 ; ARAMARK $ 53.95 ; ARAMARK $ 62.43 ; ARAMARK $ 116.38 ; ART & LEARN $ 180.83 ; ASSOCIATED SUPPLY COMPANY, INC. $ 580.78 ; ASSOCIATED SUPPLY COMPANY, INC. $ 6,542.00 ; AUDIO CONSULTANTS $ 2,000.00 ; AVESIS $ 19,205.22 ; AVI SYSTEMS, INC $ 18,678.00 ; AXTMAN, SARAH $ 74.37 ; AZURE, SYDNEY $ 57.01 ; BACKER, JONATHON LESTER $ 84.50 ; BACKLUND, JILL $ 600.00 ; BAKER NURSERY GARDENS $ 180.92 ; BARCODES DISCOUNT $ 248.32 ; BARCODES DISCOUNT $ 1,386.18 ; BARNES & NOBLE $ 377.65 ; BARNUM, KATY $ 133.06 ; BARNUM, KATY $ 660.00 ; BARNUM, KATY $ 1,320.00 ; BAYMONT INN & SUITES $ 192.00 ; BAYMONT INN & SUITES $ 1,036.80 ; BEANS COFFEE $ 148.40 ; BEATON, MICHAEL $ 90.72 ; BEE SEEN GEAR $ 51.50 ; BEECHIE, LEANNE $ 50.00 ; BEECHIE, LEANNE $ 50.00 ; BEECHIE, LEANNE $ 50.00 ; BEECHIE, LEANNE $ 100.00 ; BELL BANK $ 3,198.05 ; BELLWETHER $ 606.40 ; BENCHMARK EDUCATION $ 55,825.00 ; BENSON, JAMIE $ 49.28 ; BERNATELLO’S $ 312.00 ; BERNATELLO’S $ 693.00 ; BEST BUY COMPANY $ 3,899.94 ; BEYOND BOUNDARIES OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY $ 9,540.85 ; BIGGS-TERNES, CASSANDRA $ 14.00 ; BINA, ZAUNDRA D $ 139.50 ; BINA, ZAUNDRA D $ 279.00 ; BIVER, MICHELLE $ 210.00 ; BIX PRODUCE $ 16,475.20 ; BLICK ART MATERIALS $ 44.85 ; BLICK ART MATERIALS $ 182.47 ; BLICK ART MATERIALS $ 1,966.77 ; BLONIGEN, MARK G. $ 139.50 ; BLOWS SEW & VAC $ 1,999.00 ; BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD $ 291,813.13 ; BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD $ 361,147.66 ; BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD $ 376,266.20 ; BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD $ 411,297.14 ; BLUE CROSS AND BLUE SHIELD $ 490,655.27 ; BOEHM, TRACY $ 1,410.00 ; BOOMBAH $ 1,499.70 ; BORDER STATES ELECTRIC $ 2,985.07 ; BORDER STATES ELECTRIC $ 3,555.80 ; BORDER STATES ELECTRIC $ 3,878.58 ; BORENSON AND ASSOCIATES $ 25.00 ; BOROWICZ, KILEY $ 35.00 ; BOROWICZ, KILEY $ 70.00 ; BOROWICZ, KILEY $ 105.00 ; BOSAK-BOVKOON, TRICIA $ 101.00 ; BOSCH, CHELSEY LEE $ 1,500.00 ; BOYLE, DARLENE $ 66.25 ; BRAUN, MADELINE $ 450.00 ; BREEN, JIM P $ 84.50 ; BREEN, JIM P $ 150.00 ; BREEN, JIM P $ 150.00 ; BREEN, PAT $ 84.50 ; BRENDEN, STEPHANIE ANN $ 139.50 ; BRENDEN, STEPHANIE ANN $ 178.00 ; BRONAUGH, PRESTON T $ 75.00 ; BRONAUGH, PRESTON T $ 84.50 ; BRONAUGH, PRESTON T $ 150.00 ; BSN SPORTS $ 3,917.15 ; BSN SPORTS $ 17,743.76 ; BUNKOWSKI, KAYLA $ 68.99 ; BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION $ 41.25 ; BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION $ 41.25 ; BUREAU OF CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION $ 165.00 ; BUREAU OF EDUCATION & RESEARCH $ 279.00 ; BUSINESS ESSENTIALS $ 2,704.98 ; BUSINESS ESSENTIALS $ 21,363.38 ; BUSINESS ESSENTIALS $ 93,746.79 ; BUSINESSOLVER $ 8,818.40 ; BYTESPEED $ 8,745.00 ; CADENCE INSOLES $ 42.00 ; CAMERON, JOHN $ 150.00 ; CANAMAR, NOEMI $ 459.59 ; CARNEY, JEREMY W $ 84.50 ; CARNEY, JEREMY W $ 84.50 ; CAROLINA BIOLOGICAL $ 173.33 ; CASH WISE FOODS $ 394.63 ; CASH WISE FOODS $ 721.50 ; CASH-WA DISTRIBUTING $ 158.60 ; CASS CLAY CREAMERY $ 2,078.00 ; CASS CLAY CREAMERY $ 12,669.20 ; CASS CLAY CREAMERY $ 24,594.26 ; CASS RURAL WATER $ 12,809.58 ; CDW G CORPORATE OFFICE $ 575.15 ; CDW G CORPORATE OFFICE $ 863.70 ; CENGAGE LEARNING $ 105.60 ; CENTERING ON CHILDREN $ 1,018.64 ; CENTRAL DOOR & HARDWARE $ 29,060.05 ; CENTRAL MCGOWEN $ 4,772.80 ; CERNEY, CHRISTOPHER $ 36.00 ; CERNEY, CHRISTOPHER $ 36.00 ; CHARLIE & SONS ELECTRIC $ 11,527.00 ; CHEERSOUNDS $ 123.00 ; CHICK-FIL-A $ 175.00 ; CHICK-FIL-A $ 260.00 ; CHICK-FIL-A $ 260.00 ; CHILLER SYSTEMS, INC $ 4,356.00 ; CHOICE IT GLOBAL LLC $ 5,239.00 ; CHRISTIANSON, JOHN BRADLEY $ 234.50 ; CHRISTIANSON, KENT WAYNE $ 150.00 ; CI SPORT $ 905.50 ; CI SPORT $ 5,364.00 ; CIGNA GROUP INSURANCE $ 31,131.15 ; CITY OF FARGO $ 124.94 ; CITY OF FARGO $ 222.20 ; CITY OF FARGO $ 276.71 ; CITY OF FARGO $ 12,586.52 ; CLAPP, EDWIN $ 780.50 ; CLEARINGHOUSE $ 51.95 ; CLEARINGHOUSE $ 74.80 ; CLOSING THE GAP $ 510.00 ; COCA COLA BOTTLING COMPANY HIGH COUNTRY $ 667.60 ; COCA COLA BOTTLING COMPANY HIGH COUNTRY $ 1,019.90 ; COCA COLA BOTTLING COMPANY HIGH COUNTRY $ 1,532.76 ; COCA COLA BOTTLING COMPANY HIGH COUNTRY $ 1,728.46 ; COLE PAPER COMPANY $ 4,111.25 ; COLE PAPER COMPANY $ 4,494.94 ; COLE PAPER COMPANY $ 13,780.69 ; COLE PAPER COMPANY $ 17,425.79 ; COLES, KADE M $ 60.70 ; COMFORT INN $ 1,209.60 ; CONSOLIDATED COMMUNICATIONS $ 278.51 ; CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERS $ 10,976.71 ; CORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES $ 2,277.50 ; CORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES $ 285,000.00 ; COSTCO $ 78.82 ; COSTCO $ 96.19 ; COSTCO $ 127.51 ; COSTCO $ 268.42 ; COSTCO $ 312.13 ; COTE, TERRY $ 81.14 ; COUCHMAN, TIM E $ 84.50 ; COURTS PLUS FITNESS CENTER $ 70.00 ; COVER ONE $ 66.90 ; CRISIS PREVENTION INSTITUTE $ 649.50 ; CRISIS PREVENTION INSTITUTE $ 799.80 ; CRISIS PREVENTION INSTITUTE $ 1,799.55 ; CROWN TROPHY $ 66.75 ; CROWN TROPHY $ 221.00 ; CROWN TROPHY $ 587.00 ; CSTAND $ 170.00 ; CULINEX $ 21.38 ; CULINEX $ 34.68 ; CULINEX $ 175.80 ; CULINEX $ 1,617.95 ; CUMMINGS, PATRICIA $ 269.08 ; DACOTAH PAPER COMPANY $ 709.54 ; DACOTAH PAPER COMPANY $ 8,379.98 ; DACOTAH TECH APPLIANCE LLC $ 349.02 ; DAKOTA FENCE $ 2,613.00 ; DAKOTA MEDICAL FOUNDATION $ 400.00 ; DAKOTA MEDICAL FOUNDATION $ 907.83 ; DAKOTA REFRIGERATION INC $ 451.00 ; DAKOTA REFRIGERATION INC $ 4,178.20 ; DECA $ 816.00 ; DECA $ 900.00 ; DECA $ 1,332.00 ; DELTA DENTAL OF MINNESOTA $ 5,736.90 ; DELTA DENTAL OF MINNESOTA $ 20,657.97 ; DELTA DENTAL OF MINNESOTA $ 21,569.53 ; DELTA DENTAL OF MINNESOTA $ 23,051.02 ; DELTA DENTAL OF MINNESOTA $ 23,470.29 ; DELTA DENTAL OF MINNESOTA $ 28,019.72 ; DELTAMATH SOLUTIONS $ 95.00 ; DEMCO $ 78.07 ; DEMCO $ 253.54 ; DEMCO $ 1,215.59 ; DENAULT, JENNIFER $ 19.64 ; DESIGNER CARE CO LTD $ 6,384.00 ; DESIGNER CARE CO LTD $ 12,768.00 ; DIRT DYNAMICS $ 33,218.91 ; DISCOVERY BENEFITS $ 37,565.50 ; DISCOVERY BENEFITS $ 37,608.88 ; DISCOVERY BENEFITS $ 192,673.24 ; DITTMER CONCRETE $ 3,000.00 ; DOKARA, AMEL $ 118.00 ; DOLYNIUK, SYDNEY $ 720.33 ; DOMINO’S PIZZA $ 168.25 ; DOMINO’S PIZZA $ 274.37 ; DONAT, PATRICIA $ 281.02 ; DOUGHERTY, JAIME $ 17.91 ; DOVER PUBLICATIONS $ 183.93 ; DOYLE SECURITY PRODUCTS $ 1,129.96 ; DOYLE SECURITY PRODUCTS $ 1,129.96 ; D-S BEVERAGES INC $ 162.00 ; DUFFEY FEELEY, LANA $ 47.77 ; DUNN, CONNOR J $ 147.00 ; DUNN, CONNOR J $ 210.00 ; DUNN, CONNOR J $ 225.00 ; DUNN, DYLAN $ 225.00 ; DURGIN, DOUGLAS R $ 84.50 ; DURGIN, DOUGLAS R $ 225.00 ; EASTERN DAKOTA CONFERENCE $ 600.00 ; ECKROTH MUSIC $ 598.99 ; ECOLAB $ 963.21 ; EDGEWOOD GOLF COURSE $ 450.00 ; EDHELPER $ 1,199.40 ; EDUCATORS BENEFIT CONSULTANTS $ 468.09 ; EDUCATORS BENEFIT CONSULTANTS 403 $ 9,064.05 ; EDUCATORS BENEFIT CONSULTANTS 403 $ 9,633.72 ; EDUCATORS BENEFIT CONSULTANTS 403 $ 100,516.46 ; EHLKE, SANDRA $ 540.00 ; ELLIS, RACHEL $ 87.36 ; ELSMORE AQUATIC $ 2,835.00 ; EMIL, WAYNE $ 100.00 ; EMIL, WAYNE $ 159.50 ; ENGRAPHIX $ 2,053.60 ; ERBERT & GERBERT $ 254.37 ; ERSTAD, BRYAN $ 84.50 ; ESPECIAL NEEDS LLC $ 38.90 ; EVERYDAY SPEECH $ 135.00 ; FAIRFIELD INN $ 1,532.46 ; FAR FROM NORMAL $ 158.70 ; FARGO 3D PRINTER REPAIR $ 265.00 ; FARGO EDUCATION ASSOC $ 41.43 ; FARGO EDUCATION ASSOC $ 41.43 ; FARGO EDUCATION ASSOC $ 8,865.13 ; FARGO NORTHWEST PIPE FITTINGS $ 14,373.74 ; FARGO PARK DISTRICT $ 20,000.00 ; FARGO POLICE DEPARTMENT $ 10.00 ; FARGO PUBLIC SCHOOL FOUNDATION $ 110.00 ; FARGO PUBLIC SCHOOL FOUNDATION $ 110.00 ; FARGO PUBLIC SCHOOL FOUNDATION $ 431.68 ; FARGO ROTARY CLUB $ 215.00 ; FARGO THEATRE $ 1,885.00 ; FARGO TRACTOR & EQUIPMENT $ 76.56 ; FARGO TRACTOR & EQUIPMENT $ 243.98 ; FARGO WATER DEPT $ 8,554.19 ; FARGO WATER DEPT $ 22,175.06 ; FARKAS, TYLER $ 84.50 ; FAULKNER, LYDIA $ 190.30 ; FCCLA $ 182.00 ; FCCLA $ 273.00 ; FERGUSON $ 440.75 ; FEVIG OIL COMPANY $ 179.35 ; FIELD, KATIE $ 5.04 ; FIRST AVENUE PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS $ 598.20 ; FIRST AVENUE PROMOTIONAL PRODUCTS $ 1,400.00 ; FIRST CHOICE APPAREL & EMBROIDERY $ 324.00 ; FIRST EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES $ 198.00 ; FISCHER, JOHNATHAN $ 450.00 ; FLIETH, KARISSA $ 3,000.00 ; F-M FLOORING $ 9,900.00 ; FMHRA $ 199.00 ; FOERSTER, CHRISTOPHER $ 780.00 ; FOLDEN, KENNEDY $ 38.50 ; FOLDEN, KENNEDY $ 77.00 ; FOLLETT SCHOOL SOLUTIONS INC $ 5,010.52 ; FOLLETT SCHOOL SOLUTIONS INC $ 23,621.95 ; FORKS LATH AND PLASTER $ 3,073.50 ; FORUM $ 20.25 ; FORUM $ 655.29 ; FORUM $ 1,099.00 ; FORUM $ 1,223.91 ; FOX, GUY $ 450.00 ; FRANCIS HOWELL HIGH SCHOOL $ 1,020.00 ; FROSTY FRUIT $ 1,380.00 ; FROSTY FRUIT $ 2,530.00 ; FRS $ 172.00 ; FULL CIRCLE PEDIATRIC SOLUTIONS $ 660.00 ; FULL CIRCLE PEDIATRIC SOLUTIONS $ 22,417.00 ; G & R CONTROLS $ 1,077.00 ; G & R CONTROLS $ 1,110.00 ; GADDIE, CARLY $ 80.08 ; GATE CITY BANK $ 370.36 ; GATE CITY BANK $ 3,244.20 ; GEHRTZ CONSTRUCTION SERVICES $ 464.00 ; GEISZLER, GRANT $ 75.00 ; GEISZLER, GRANT $ 84.50 ; GELLNER, RYAN D $ 84.50 ; GENERAL PARTS $ 174.00 ; GENERAL PARTS $ 379.25 ; GENERAL PARTS $ 698.19 ; GENERAL PARTS $ 814.28 ; GERRELLS SPORT CENTER $ 8,515.00 ; GLASER, DEBORAH R EdD, LLC $ 9,675.00 ; GLENDALE PARADE STORE $ 214.45 ; GO PROMO, LLC $ 1,104.50 ; GOERTS, SARAH $ 97.89 ; GOPHER SPORTS EQUIPMENT $ 2,650.98 ; GRACENOTES $ 2,700.00 ; GRAINGER $ 630.00 ; GRAINGER $ 1,760.75 ; GRAINGER $ 2,616.22 ; GRANDE, TRISSA $ 38.50 ; GRANDE, TRISSA $ 77.00 ; GRANDE, TRISSA $ 77.00 ; GRANT’S MECHANICAL, LLC $ 13,653.05 ; GRESHAM, RON $ 30.00 ; GUDMUNDSON, CYDNEY $ 300.00 ; GUMKE, KELSEY $ 220.08 ; GUNNERSON, MICHAEL $ 348.15 ; H2I GROUP $ 639.00 ; HABERDASHERY CORPORATE APPAREL $ 343.00 ; HAHN, KAYLEE $ 33.54 ; HAJICEK, MARNI R. $ 139.50 ; HAJICEK, MARNI R. $ 418.50 ; HAMILTON, BRITTNEY $ 71.06 ; HANSEN, DOUGLAS $ 55.97 ; HANSON, ERIKA $ 32.65 ; HANSON, LIANN $ 154.91 ; HANSON, SHAWN $ 90.00 ; HANSON, SHAWN $ 150.00 ; HANSON, SHAWN $ 324.00 ; HANSON, STAN $ 84.50 ; HANSON, STAN $ 90.00 ; HANSON, STAN $ 150.00 ; HANSON, STAN $ 225.00 ; HARTER, JANICE $ 209.50 ; HARTZE, STEVEN $ 110.50 ; HASTY AWARDS $ 191.10 ; HAWKINS $ 449.63 ; HAWKINS $ 692.23 ; HAWKINS $ 815.41 ; HAWTHORNE EDUCATIONAL SERVICE $ 150.00 ; HB SOUND & LIGHT $ 290.92 ; HEARING SOLUTIONS, INC $ 3,200.00 ; HEARTLAND BUSINESS SYSTEMS $ 5,551.25 ; HECKAMAN, DANIEL $ 87.00 ; HECKAMAN, DANIEL $ 125.50 ; HECKAMAN, DANIEL $ 149.50 ; HEGGERTY PHONEMIC AWARENESS $ 159.95 ; HEINEMANN $ 935.00 ; HEINEMANN $ 5,095.75 ; HEINSCH, CARTER $ 131.00 ; HEINSCH, CARTER $ 156.00 ; HERTZ RENT A CAR $ 150.00 ; HERTZ RENT A CAR $ 250.00 ; HERTZ RENT A CAR $ 300.00 ; HERTZ RENT A CAR $ 450.00 ; HERTZ RENT A CAR $ 528.13 ; HERZOG ROOFING $ 13,577.04 ; HESS, JENNIFER $ 291.52 ; HETLAND PRODUCTIONS $ 400.00 ; HETZLER, CHRISTOPHER JAMES $ 125.50 ; HILDE, ALLISON $ 77.00 ; HILDE, ALLISON $ 77.00 ; HODGE PRODUCTS, INC $ 1,300.00 ; HOESEHEN, ALLISON $ 450.00 ; HOESLEY, DEBRA $ 50.00 ; HOLDER, ALAYNA $ 105.00 ; HOLDER, ALAYNA $ 105.00 ; HOLEN, ANTHONY $ 84.50 ; HOLIDAY INN $ 2,419.20 ; HOLLAND, JASON $ 52.50 ; HOLLCRAFT, MEREDITH $ 139.50 ; HOLLCRAFT, MEREDITH $ 139.50 ; HOLLERUNG, KAREN $ 28.11 ; HOLTEN, CORY $ 242.00 ; HOLZER, BLAIR $ 38.86 ; HORNBACHER’S $ 1,958.73 ; HORSLEY SPECIALITIES INC $ 6,375.00 ; HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT $ 88.40 ; HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT $ 3,956.28 ; HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT $ 93,102.72 ; HOVDA, ALLYSON $ 281.02 ; INDEPENDENT EMERGENCY SERVICES $ 290.79 ; INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPT $ 30.00 ; INNOVATIVE GYM SOLUTIONS $ 240.00 ; INNOVATIVE OFFICE SOLUTIONS $ 166.43 ; INNOVATIVE OFFICE SOLUTIONS $ 202.86 ; INSTRUCTURE $ 750.00 ; INTERIOR AFFAIRS $ 4,241.70 ; INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE $ 245,374.71 ; INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE $ 266,552.28 ; INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE $ 1,674,395.55 ; INTERWORLD HIGHWAY $ 243.32 ; INTERWORLD HIGHWAY $ 15,717.75 ; IPOP $ 150.00 ; IPOP $ 212.00 ; J & L SPORTS INC $ 4,841.00 ; J & R SCHOOL SUPPLIES, INC $ 299.00 ; JAYS SMOKIN BBQ $ 384.00 ; JOB SERVICE NORTH DAKOTA $ 2,092.25 ; JOHNSON CONTROLS $ 279.00 ; JOHNSON CONTROLS $ 320.00 ; JOHNSON CONTROLS $ 867.50 ; JOHNSON CONTROLS $ 940.00 ; JOHNSON, ADELINE $ 25.54 ; JOHNSON, TODD $ 230.58 ; JONAS, DENISE $ 67.87 ; JONES, ADAM STEVEN $ 169.00 ; JOSTENS $ 756.30 ; JP MORGAN CHASE $ 505,248.83 ; JT LAWN SERVICE $ 1,181.00 ; JT LAWN SERVICE $ 2,412.00 ; KADING, JOSHUA $ 363.74 ; KALDOR, MARSHALL $ 75.00 ; KALDOR, MARSHALL $ 84.50 ; KAMPA, HANAH $ 930.00 ; KARSKY, TIM $ 84.50 ; KBRO METALWORKS $ 171.88 ; KELVIN $ 533.05 ; KERBAUGH, BRENDA $ 39.70 ; KESSLER, KEVIN D $ 105.00 ; KIDS DISCOVER $ 10,972.50 ; KRAFT, ARTHUR A $ 75.00 ; KRAFT, ARTHUR A $ 150.00 ; KRAFT, ARTHUR A $ 150.00 ; KRINGLIE, KELLIE $ 33.38 ; KRUIZE, HANNAH $ 70.00 ; KRUIZE, HANNAH $ 105.00 ; KRUIZE, HANNAH $ 105.00 ; KUENEMAN, KADEN $ 84.50 ; KUENEMAN, ROB J $ 84.50 ; LAKESHORE LEARNING MATERIALS $ 720.10 ; LAKESHORE LEARNING MATERIALS $ 790.99 ; LAMPERTS YARDS $ 252.39 ; LARSON, SHANNON M. $ 74.20 ; LAUER, LOUIS $ 263.52 ; LEAGUE LEGACY $ 545.82 ; LEAGUE LEGACY $ 681.01 ; LEAN, PAUL $ 52.50 ; LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES, INC $ 104.75 ; LEARNING WITHOUT TEARS $ 525.25 ; LEGO EDUCATION $ 287.60 ; LEIER, MICHAEL R $ 70.00 ; LEIER, MICHAEL R $ 70.00 ; LEIER, WESLEY D $ 118.00 ; LEVENGER $ 980.80 ; LIEN, MICHAEL $ 75.00 ; LIEN, MICHAEL $ 150.00 ; LOCH, MADISON $ 51.63 ; LOFFLER COMPANIES $ 6,426.09 ; LOGO 2 PROMO $ 52.45 ; LONG, COURTNEY $ 70.00 ; LUTTIO, JEREMY D $ 139.50 ; LYONS, KAITLAN $ 75.49 ; M & J AUTO PARTS INC $ 340.20 ; M & J AUTO PARTS INC $ 1,198.86 ; MACGILL SUPPLIES $ 37.95 ; MACKIN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES $ 909.51 ; MAC’S $ 53.95 ; MADSON, ROXANNE $ 135.00 ; MAGNUM ELECTRIC $ 3,492.00 ; MAKI, JACOB TIMOTHY $ 57.63 ; MARCO $ 24,154.63 ; MARCO $ 72,034.92 ; MARCO LEARNING $ 1,998.00 ; MARCO PRODUCTS, INC $ 227.78 ; MARCO’S PIZZA $ 143.40 ; MARCO’S PIZZA $ 289.27 ; MARK FORKNER SPECIALTIES $ 460.07 ; MARKERBOARD PEOPLE $ 6,480.00 ; MARRIOTT HOTELS $ 1,425.00 ; MARTIN, TRAVIS L. $ 84.50 ; MARTINSON, LOIS JEANETTE $ 70.00 ; MARTINSON, LOIS JEANETTE $ 105.00 ; MARTINSON, LOIS JEANETTE $ 175.00 ; MARZANO RESOURCES $ 1,680.00 ; MASTEL, MARY BETH $ 165.00 ; MATHCOUNTS $ 360.00 ; MAUCORT, BERNARD D $ 62.50 ; MAUCORT, BERNARD D $ 420.00 ; MBN ENGINEERING, INC $ 3,500.00 ; MCARTHUR TILE $ 5,503.39 ; MCGRAW HILL $ 652.35 ; MCGRAW HILL $ 2,686.54 ; MEAD AND HUNT $ 2,133.00 ; MEDCO SUPPLY COMPANY $ 59.88 ; MEDEX LOGISTICS $ 45.00 ; MEHL’S FLOUR COMPANY $ 683.98 ; MELBY, JILL $ 108.00 ; MENARDS $ 71.80 ; MENARDS $ 244.23 ; MENARDS $ 506.56 ; MENARDS $ 918.65 ; MENARDS $ 1,123.56 ; MERIDIAN COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION $ 6,722.45 ; MERIDIAN COMMERCIAL CONSTRUCTION $ 89,816.21 ; MICHAEL J BURNS ARCHITECTS $ 92.50 ; MIDWEST EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANTS $ 3,750.00 ; MIDWEST OVERHEAD CRANE CORP $ 302.34 ; MILLER, BRANT $ 75.00 ; MILLER, BRENTON $ 60.39 ; MILLER, HEATHER $ 263.52 ; MINKO CONSTRUCTION INC $ 3,150.00 ; MINKO CONSTRUCTION INC $ 37,739.00 ; MINNESOTA CHILD SUPPORT $ 132.90 ; MINNESOTA CHILD SUPPORT $ 132.90 ; MINNESOTA DEPT OF REVENUE $ 5,256.34 ; MINNESOTA DEPT OF REVENUE $ 5,827.84 ; MINNESOTA DEPT OF REVENUE $ 50,414.65 ; MINNKOTA RECYCLING $ 3,061.67 ; MISSISSIPPI DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES $ 18.46 ; MISSISSIPPI DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES $ 18.46 ; MITCHELL, EMMA $ 77.00 ; MN GIRLS BASKETBALL COACHES ASSOC $ 300.00 ; MOE, JAMES $ 367.00 ; MOELLER, ABIGAIL $ 40.60 ; MOEMS $ 119.00 ; MOEN PORTABLES & SEPIC $ 303.75 ; MOEN PORTABLES & SEPIC $ 385.00 ; MOEN PORTABLES & SEPIC $ 510.00 ; MOLIN CONCRETE PRODUCTS COMPANY $ 2,966.80 ; MONACO $ 3,718.10 ; MONEY MOVERS $ 840.00 ; MONONO, EWUMBUA MENYOLI $ 130.00 ; MOORE, SHANE SR $ 75.00 ; MOORE, SHANE SR $ 75.00 ; MOORE, SHANE SR $ 100.00 ; MOORHEAD PUBLIC SERVICE $ 6,217.82 ; MOSYLE CORPORATION $ 80,190.00 ; MTI DISTRIBUTING $ 310.10 ; MURPHY, AMYJO $ 281.02 ; MUSIC EMPORIUM $ 170.00 ; MUSIC EMPORIUM $ 525.00 ; NAGEL, BRIANNA $ 450.00 ; NASCO $ 29.76 ; NASCO $ 158.00 ; NATIONAL SPEECH AND DEBATE ASSOC $ 177.00 ; NAT’L ASSOC FOR MUSIC EDUCATION $ 100.00 ; NAT’L ASSOC FOR MUSIC EDUCATION $ 140.00 ; ND ACDA $ 42.00 ; ND ACDA $ 84.00 ; ND ACDA $ 133.00 ; ND BOARD OF NURSING $ 60.00 ; ND BOARD OF NURSING $ 60.00 ; ND BOARD OF NURSING $ 240.00 ; ND COUNCIL OF EDUC LEADERS $ 700.00 ; ND COUNCIL OF EDUC LEADERS $ 880.00 ; ND COUNCIL OF EDUC LEADERS $ 1,580.00 ; ND DECA $ 180.00 ; ND DEPT OF HUMAN SERVICES $ 175.00 ; ND HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ASSOC $ 50.00 ; ND HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ASSOC $ 50.00 ; ND HIGH SCHOOL COACHES ASSOC $ 90.00 ; ND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIRE $ 163,043.14 ; ND PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RETIRE $ 414,973.41 ; ND STATE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE $ 1,328.00 ; ND STATE DISBURSEMENT UNIT $ 1,425.20 ; ND STATE DISBURSEMENT UNIT $ 1,692.16 ; ND STATE DISBURSEMENT UNIT $ 5,943.00 ; ND STATE LAND DEPT $ 5,204.12 ; ND STATE TAX COMMISSIONER $ 101,343.00 ; ND TEACHER FUND FOR RETIREMENT $ 1,839,384.00 ; NDADD $ 100.00 ; NDALL $ 1,440.00 ; NDSAA $ 105.00 ; NDSAA $ 2,280.00 ; NDSU $ 200.00 ; NDSU $ 400.00 ; NDSU $ 981.80 ; NDSU $ 1,080.00 ; NETCENTER SUPPLY $ 260.51 ; NEWLAND, STEPHANIE DAWN $ 172.80 ; NEZNIK, JENNIFER ANN $ 19.15 ; NFL ROUGH RIDER DISTRICT $ 145.00 ; NFL ROUGH RIDER DISTRICT $ 315.00 ; NFL ROUGH RIDER DISTRICT $ 1,220.00 ; NICHOLE’S $ 40.00 ; NOCTURNAL HOSPITALITY GROUP $ 1,080.65 ; NOESEN, MADISON $ 450.00 ; NOLD, JEFFREY WILLIAM $ 84.50 ; NORCOSTCO $ 234.74 ; NORLAND, KORA $ 35.00 ; NORLAND, KORA $ 70.00 ; NORLAND, KORA $ 70.00 ; NORTH DAKOTA LIBRARY ASSOC $ 310.00 ; NORTH DAKOTA ONE CALL $ 12.50 ; NORTHERN CASS SCHOOL DIST #97 $ 249.00 ; NORTHLAND TRUSS SYSTEMS, INC $ 13,950.00 ; NORTHLAND TRUSS SYSTEMS, INC $ 19,385.00 ; NORTHWEST IRON FIREMEN INC $ 556.10 ; NOTHING BUNDT CAKES $ 216.00 ; NOVOA, MARIA $ 450.00 ; ODLAND, PAUL $ 335.00 ; OFFICE DEPOT $ 128.70 ; OFFICE DEPOT $ 177.55 ; OFFICE DEPOT $ 271.20 ; OFFICE SIGN COMPANY $ 64.12 ; OFFICE SIGN COMPANY $ 76.96 ; OFFICE SIGN COMPANY $ 1,463.41 ; OHLHAUSER, LENNY $ 546.76 ; OJEDA, RACHEL $ 450.00 ; OLSON, KARA LYN SCHMITZ $ 78.00 ; OLSON, KARA LYN SCHMITZ $ 83.00 ; OMNI GROUP INTERNATIONAL LLC $ 2,220.00 ; OPP CONSTRUCTION $ 30,622.72 ; ORIENTAL TRADING COMPANY $ 244.58 ; ORIENTAL TRADING COMPANY $ 293.81 ; OSTENDORF, AMANDA $ 35.00 ; OSTENDORF, KRISTINE $ 385.62 ; OURADNIK, KYLE S. $ 75.00 ; OURADNIK, KYLE S. $ 84.50 ; OVERDRIVE $ 18,000.00 ; PAN O GOLD BAKING CO $ 322.24 ; PAN O GOLD BAKING CO $ 1,148.69 ; PAN O GOLD BAKING CO $ 1,997.17 ; PAPA JOHN’S $ 110.00 ; PAPA JOHN’S $ 487.00 ; PAPA JOHN’S $ 1,057.00 ; PAPER, TONY $ 66.00 ; PAPER, TONY $ 90.00 ; PARSONS ELECTRIC $ 845.00 ; PAUL BUNYAN NURSERIES $ 234.15 ; PAWLIK, GREGORY $ 19.10 ; PAXTON PATTERSON $ 223.15 ; PEARSON $ 410.49 ; PEARSON $ 1,915.20 ; PEDERSON, KARLA $ 575.00 ; PEDERSON, KAY $ 105.00 ; PEDERSON, KAY $ 105.00 ; PEDERSON, KAY $ 140.00 ; PEDERSON, LEVI $ 117.10 ; PEETERS, SARAH $ 57.41 ; PEETERS, SARAH $ 119.40 ; PENNICK, KOBY A $ 139.50 ; PENNICK, KOBY A $ 139.50 ; PENNICK, KOBY A $ 139.50 ; PEPPER AT ECKROTH $ 652.63 ; PEPSI COLA BOTTLING $ 404.96 ; PEPSI COLA BOTTLING $ 1,013.11 ; PEPSI COLA BOTTLING $ 1,681.82 ; PEPSI COLA BOTTLING $ 1,812.99 ; PETERSON, ADDISON MAE $ 154.00 ; PETERSON, SUSAN NICOLE KENIEN $ 237.58 ; PETRO SERVE USA $ 2,769.00 ; PETSMART $ 48.75 ; PIATZ, SHANE $ 84.50 ; PIERCE LEE ROOFING, LLC $ 23,350.00 ; PINK IT FORWARD $ 1,435.50 ; PIONEER VALLEY BOOKS $ 99.00 ; PITSCO $ 209.50 ; PLAY IT AGAIN SPORTS $ 132.00 ; PLUNKETT’S PEST CONTROL $ 504.33 ; POCKET NURSE $ 233.24 ; POCKET NURSE $ 2,267.94 ; POLAR INSULATION $ 3,828.20 ; POPP BINDING & LAMINATING INC $ 291.54 ; POPPLERS MUSIC $ 3,186.64 ; POPULAR WOODWORKING $ 10.00 ; POST UP STAND $ 426.08 ; POTTER, BEN $ 84.50 ; POTTER, THOMAS $ 87.00 ; POTTY SHACKS $ 120.00 ; POWER SYSTEMS $ 111.56 ; PRAXAIR $ 73.35 ; PREMIUM WATERS, INC $ 65.99 ; PREMIUM WATERS, INC $ 134.74 ; PREMIUM WATERS, INC $ 239.68 ; PRIMUS, KYLIE $ 300.00 ; PRO-ED $ 725.70 ; PRO-ED $ 1,007.00 ; PROQUEST $ 14,639.01 ; PURE HEALTH SOLUTIONS $ 45.00 ; PURE HEALTH SOLUTIONS $ 90.00 ; PUTNAM, DESIRAE $ 70.00 ; QUINTUS, MATTHEW STEPHEN $ 60.01 ; R & R PETROLEUM EQUIP SALES $ 240.00 ; RACE PACE SWIM GEAR $ 547.50 ; RAMADA $ 345.60 ; RAMKOTA HOTEL $ 186.40 ; RAPTOR TECHNOLOGIES $ 7,000.00 ; RATWIK, ROSZAK & MALONEY, P.A. $ 5,156.35 ; REALLY GOOD STUFF $ 26.94 ; REALLY GOOD STUFF $ 503.90 ; RED RIVER LANES $ 533.00 ; RED RIVER ZOO $ 263.50 ; REFRIGERATION HEATING INC $ 2,023.72 ; RENEGADE PHOTOGRAPHY $ 250.00 ; RENNEBERG HARDWOODS INC $ 1,199.00 ; RENNEBERG HARDWOODS INC $ 2,052.33 ; RETROFIT COMPANIES $ 502.80 ; RETROFIT COMPANIES $ 655.00 ; RHEAULT, ALLISON A $ 35.00 ; RHEAULT, ALLISON A $ 70.00 ; RHEAULT, ALLISON A $ 140.00 ; RICHARDSON, GRANT $ 133.50 ; RICHARDSON, GRANT $ 181.00 ; RICK ELECTRIC INC $ 3,532.50 ; RIDDELL/ALL AMERICAN SPORTS $ 2,312.81 ; RIGELS, INC $ 699.00 ; RIGELS, INC $ 789.00 ; RIGGS, CALVIN $ 84.50 ; RIGGS, MARK R $ 84.50 ; RINAS, ALEXIS $ 155.85 ; RISE VISION $ 23.14 ; RIVERSIDE TECHNOLOGIES INC $ 32,316.00 ; ROACH, KENDRA $ 61.20 ; ROCHESTER 100, INC $ 135.00 ; ROCHESTER ARMORED CAR CO $ 561.84 ; ROCKLER $ 145.96 ; RODEWAY INN $ 665.60 ; ROHLOFF, PRESTON $ 66.00 ; ROHLOFF, PRESTON $ 90.00 ; ROSENBERG, MARY $ 13.89 ; RUSSO’S BOOKS $ 266.86 ; RWP $ 5,000.00 ; RWP $ 6,000.00 ; RWP $ 6,250.75 ; S & S LANDSCAPING $ 2,220.00 ; S & S PROMOTIONAL GROUP $ 135.90 ; S & S PROMOTIONAL GROUP $ 1,037.00 ; S & S PROMOTIONAL GROUP $ 1,552.81 ; SAGER, MADELYNNE $ 5.82 ; SAHR, JENNIFER $ 119.91 ; SAHR, JENNIFER $ 237.58 ; SAM’S CLUB $ 1,908.11 ; SANDMAN, ELEANOR $ 54.40 ; SANDMAN, MARK A. $ 84.50 ; SANDY’S DONUTS $ 142.28 ; SANDY’S DONUTS $ 205.55 ; SANFORD $ 65.00 ; SAVAGEAU, CHRIS $ 450.00 ; SAVILLE, STEVEN B $ 44.01 ; SCANTRON $ 1,592.50 ; SCHEELS $ 1,405.87 ; SCHELL, KAYLEE JO $ 179.00 ; SCHLEICHER, SARAH $ 101.00 ; SCHLEICHER, SARAH $ 139.50 ; SCHLEICHER, SARAH $ 279.00 ; SCHMITZ, ANN L $ 87.00 ; SCHMITZ, ANN L $ 92.00 ; SCHMITZ, ANN L $ 184.00 ; SCHOB, SANDRA A $ 56.00 ; SCHOB, SANDRA A $ 56.00 ; SCHOLASTIC $ 560.34 ; SCHOLASTIC $ 2,624.23 ; SCHOLASTIC $ 6,902.00 ; SCHOOL HEALTH $ 2,112.18 ; SCHOOL SPECIALTY $ 1,992.62 ; SCHOOL SPECIALTY $ 4,620.33 ; SCHOOLMART $ 2,664.85 ; SCHWAB VOLLHABER LUBRATT SERVICE $ 414.00 ; SCHWAB VOLLHABER LUBRATT SERVICE $ 679.50 ; SCHWINDEN, CRAIG $ 84.50 ; SCOTT’S ELECTRIC $ 40,921.11 ; SEEC $ 596.15 ; SEELIG, LINDSAY $ 17.50 ; SELE, NATHAN D $ 84.50 ; SELLDEN, TREVOR $ 66.00 ; SELLDEN, TREVOR $ 90.00 ; SERKLAND LAW FIRM $ 1,929.59 ; SHAR PRODUCTS COMPANY $ 200.64 ; SHAW, ADAM $ 66.00 ; SHAW, ADAM $ 90.00 ; SHOCKMAN, TOM $ 84.50 ; SIGN PRO $ 1,055.00 ; SIGNATURE CONCEPTS $ 3,725.37 ; SIMONSON LUMBER $ 22,296.35 ; SIR SPEEDY $ 245.18 ; SIR SPEEDY $ 1,804.00 ; SIR SPEEDY $ 2,749.35 ; SKATECITY $ 567.00 ; SKM COLLECTIONS $ 181.31 ; SKM COLLECTIONS $ 209.78 ; SLACK, DEBRA K $ 125.50 ; SMEDSHAMMER, VONNE $ 70.00 ; SMEDSHAMMER, VONNE $ 105.00 ; SMITH, SARA ANDREA $ 366.86 ; SMITHCO $ 33,062.64 ; SNO SITES $ 250.00 ; SOEHREN, SEAN $ 75.82 ; SOLUTIONS $ 300.00 ; SOUTHEAST REGION CTE $ 4,100.00 ; SOUTHEAST REGION CTE $ 13,035.25 ; 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Page, Arizona, Ex Teacher Brant Williams Hawks White Nationalist Homeschooling Online

The School of the West, a recently launched online “educational resource for homeschooling parents,” offers a smattering of materials—some free, some only for paying members—to help teach kids standard subjects like math, science, and language arts. But its key selling point is a unique and deeply disturbing field of study that the site has dubbed “White Wellbeing.”

A write-up on the contents of an upcoming three-month live-streamed white wellbeing course, advertised for students ages four and older, explains that it will help children “understand the gift of being born a member of Westernkind and the qualities that separate us from the other races.” In case it wasn’t clear, the write-up later clarifies that “the White race is known as Westernkind.” It also promises to teach them how to spot and respond to the “anti-white propaganda” that supposedly suffuses modern life, why white people are the only true citizens of Western nations, and how “feminism destroys the family unit,” the supposed backbone of all Westernkind, “thus weakening our societies.”

This blatant white-nationalist ideology is infused into some of the site’s lessons on conventional subjects, as well. Its history materials, for example, falsely teach that the notion European colonization led to the spread of new diseases that decimated indigenous populations is not established historical fact, but an anti-white myth. The School also links to the Institute for Historical Review, as a “reliable online source for the study of history.” The IHR notoriously publishes materials that push for Holocaust denial and antisemitic readings of history, using the language and formatting of conventional academia, but none of its rigor. And the School’s life sciences materials are just a series of seven videos and attendant worksheets on the supposed science of human racial differences, which deliver a series of thoroughly debunked pseudoscientific arguments as if they were hard facts.

“When you develop trust with your students, they’ll believe pretty much everything you say.”

— Brant Williams

As if to underscore its focus on white-nationalist indoctrination, one video on the site even tells children that, in the face of a supposedly virulently anti-white culture, “it’s important to do your schoolwork, but it’s even more important to feel good about yourself and your own people.”

Oh, and an ad for the site floating around the dark corners of the internet opens with pictures of all-white communities and schools in the mid-20th century, then juxtaposes them with images of diverse classrooms and clips of Black kids hitting white kids, among other racial fear-baiting imagery. Towards the end of the ad, text pops up that reads “Enough. Reclaim Your Destiny.” It then shows a copy of White Fragility—the pop explainer on systemic and often unconscious racism—burning over coals.

It is easy to dismiss the site as a gross but ultimately marginal aberration. After all, it appears to be one guy’s pet project: On the site, he goes by Brant Danger, but the Anti-Defamation League extremism researcher Mark Pitcavage and The Daily Beast have identified him as Brant Williams, who until this spring was a teacher in the majority-Native American Page Unified School District, which serves Page, Arizona, and surrounding areas. A representative for the PUSD told The Daily Beast that Williams left of his own volition at the end of the last school year. The representative said they weren’t aware of his work on the School of the West.

Williams did not respond to repeated efforts to reach him for comment on this story.

But experts on homeschooling and white nationalism alike say that his School actually reflects longstanding efforts to indoctrinate children into extremism. It’s just far more blatant, visible, and organized than many past extremist homeschooling endeavors. Amy Cooter, a sociologist who studies white nationalism, and grew up in a private Southern Baptist church school with connections to far-right homeschooling groups, argued the School’s blatant racism is not a naïve mistake, but a logical step in larger efforts to bring white-nationalist ideas into mainstream consciousness.

“Our political environment is more receptive to this sort of messaging at the moment,” she told The Daily Beast.

Notably, in recent months, fans of the School of the West have started to drop links to it in a few small social media communities focused on anti-critical race theory activism, in the hope that people who’ve bought into that twisted, partially manufactured, and racially charged furor might be amenable to the school and its ideology. This tactic probably won’t be as successful as fans of the School might hope, the experts The Daily Beast spoke to argued. But it may be more successful than many mainstream observers—and anti-CRT activists, most of whom vigorously dispute charges that their movement is tinged with racism—would be comfortable with.

“I’m sure that some people who’ve thought of themselves as not racist will buy into this,” Cooter told The Daily Beast.

Motives for homeschooling children in the United States have always been diverse. But for decades, a particularly vocal and visible subset of homeschoolers have advocated pulling kids out of school to escape the supposedly secular, liberal bias of public education. There’s also a longstanding connection between homeschooling and anti-integration white flight. Overt white nationalists in particular started to go all-in on homeschooling in the early 2000s, Pitcavage noted.

“White nationalists are interested in creating their own parallel society,” explained Sophie Bjork-James, an anthropologist who studies white-nationalist communities. “Educating children in white-supremacist values is part of this plan… White nationalists understand that exposing their children to multicultural curricula can lead to a rejection of their beliefs.”

However, Jameson Brewer, an education researcher who studies homeschooling tactics and trends, said that public resources and curricula created for these communities “tend to be more shrouded, to use dog whistles.” Their textbooks might, for example, frame slavery as a necessary evil, or present a both-sides narrative about Nazi policies. Cooter added that these sorts of materials also tend to show only images of white families, and talk exclusively about white people’s histories. Even curricula that express openly far-right ideologies often stop short of talking about things like core racial differences, instead just waxing poetic about loaded concepts like Western Christianity, nationalism, and tradition, while castigating social justice and wokeness as anathema to good, orderly society.

Richard Fording, a University of Alabama professor who tracks white-nationalist trends, said that there are more explicit “white-nationalist homeschooling groups out there, but they are normally kind of under the radar, not open to just anyone.” White nationalists also swap ideas about what to teach kids on their own niche platforms so as to help each other develop private, idiosyncratic curricula. In the mid-2000s, a Klan group did create what it called the first homeschooling resource for white-nationalist parents, but said it didn’t “intend to provide all the information, all the tools, books, etc.,” and instead just wanted to point folks “in the right direction.” Similarly, a white-nationalist women’s group on the West Coast created something that it called a curriculum, but that actually just guided those who purchased it through how to build their own.

Experts stressed that these efforts have always been small scale, ad hoc, and/or fleeting. Brant Williams clearly felt there was a major gap in educational offerings for open white-nationalists—and took it upon himself to fill it.

Williams has told a consistent story on a number of far-right livestreams and podcasts about how he came to develop the School of the West.

In these interviews, as on the School of the West site, he consistently goes by the name Brant Danger, and is often cagey about his location or exact job title. But after Pitcavage of the ADL learned about the School of the West this summer, he found an old social media handle and email address that used that pseudonym, and were both connected to the name Brant Williams. Both used the same profile photo, which resembles “Brant Danger,” who makes no effort to hide or disguise his face during livestreamed interviews or in School of the West videos. The social media account also included a white pride meme and some materials related to teaching.

Williams appears to have slipped up in a few of his Brant Danger interviews—if he ever was truly attempting to conceal his identity—mentioning that he taught in Arizona, near a reservation. Pitcavage noticed that and, after some searching, found the name Brant Williams on the faculty page of a Page Unified School District school. He also found a YouTube video in which a man who looks exactly like “Brant Danger” identifies himself as Brant Williams, a Page-area earth and space sciences teacher, and castigates the local school district.

The Daily Beast checked public records and found a Brant Williams connected to an address in Page. The Arizona Department of Education’s teacher certification database also lists a Brant Williams with an active certificate and a specialization in earth sciences. The Daily Beast could not find any record of any other person named Brant Williams with a certification to teach in Arizona living within a 100-mile radius of Page. A Page Unified School District representative also told The Daily Beast that Brant Williams taught there until the end of the last school year, which lines up with details “Brant Danger” has given about his career status in interviews. The representative reviewed the YouTube video of Brant Williams deriding the district as well, and confirmed the man who appeared in it seemed to be the same Brant Williams who taught in their schools.

The Daily Beast also identified Arizona business incorporation papers that list a “Brant Williams” as the owner and operator of School of the West LLC, and connect him to an address in Page. The School of the West’s website used an anonymization service to hide its owner from registration databases. But within a trove of data published by hackers who broke into the far right-friendly web hosting service Epik, The Daily Beast found information showing that the site was registered by a “Brant Williams,” and linked to a post office box in Page.

In online interviews, Williams (speaking as “Brant Danger”) has claimed that he had a slow “racial awakening” over the course of his childhood, as he observed the differences between majority-white and majority-minority communities and schools. But in 2016, he’s said, he started researching Muslim immigration to Europe online and went “further and further down the rabbit holes.”

Eventually, he found Jason Köhne, an author and streamer instrumental in the development of a seemingly genteel new flavor of white nationalism focused on fostering so-called white wellbeing in the face of a supposed deluge of anti-white policies and propaganda. Köhne notably advocates for the open expression of white cultural pride as a counter to alleged systemic anti-white degradation and oppression. Williams became a mod in the chats that accompany some of Köhne’s livestreams, and clearly states in School of the West materials that many of his lessons are heavily informed by Köhne’s works, or even in some cases direct attempts to adapt their arguments for younger audiences. (Köhne did not respond to a request for comment on this story.)

Williams has also claimed that teaching in a majority-minority community deepened his belief in the fundamental differences between different races—or, put another way, reinforced his racism. Notably, he’s described his Native students as inherently less focused and punctual than his white students, and argued that the reservation communities near Page are covered in trash and full of mangy dogs because Native Americans don’t care about cleanliness or animals—baldly bogus and bigoted claims. He’s insisted that he loves all of his students, and bears no ill will towards other races—that they can and should live according to their supposed inborn and unique racial impulses. But he’s argued that diversity, and the influence of other cultures, is detrimental to white communities.

He’s also said that he’s long chafed at depictions of multiculturalism in school materials, and at efforts to promote equality or equity within classrooms and wider school systems. At times, he’s said, when he felt that school textbooks were teaching lies, he’d close the door to his classroom and teach what he believes to be the truth instead. In one interview, he recounted an instance in which his students asked if something was racist and he told them not to use that word because “that R word for white people is like the N word for black people… it’s just meant to hurt white people. Don’t use that word.”

“Here’s the thing with kids,” he recently told another interviewer. “If I told them that aliens came down and made these people in Hollywood and now everyone in Hollywood is aliens, they’d go, ‘Yeah, OK, alright.’ When you develop trust with your students, they’ll believe pretty much everything you say.”

This is bad when teachers promote anti-white propaganda, he argued. But it’s an asset when someone like him comes along to tell them the so-called truth about race and society.

As his urge to spread his blatantly racist gospel to young, impressionable minds—and his frustrations with the supposed anti-white bent of his district—festered, Williams apparently started talking in niche social-media communities about the importance of creating venues “for white kids who want to be taught by whites.” While he found people online who agreed with him, he couldn’t find any resources that he felt fit the bill.

Then in early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic forced his school to go remote. This, he’s claimed, gave him the time and space he needed to start making his dream a reality—building the foundations of the School of the West while still teaching in a public school. Registration data show that Williams began to create the School’s site in April 2020. (It is not entirely clear why he left the school at which he taught at the end of the last school year.) He’s claimed that Köhne helped him to connect with other so-called white wellbeing advocates across the web who helped him develop lessons; around a dozen white-nationalist figures, some obscure and some relatively well-known in this niche digital scene, appear to have contributed to the project. Williams has claimed that he’s still working with collaborators to build out the curriculum, which he boasts will grow far more comprehensive in the months and years to come.

Even before he officially incorporated and launched the School this past summer, far-right streams and social-media accounts started to promote and celebrate his venture. But awareness of the project was seemingly confined to niche white-nationalist spheres.

Then the right-wing panic over critical race theory exploded into public view.

The anti-CRT movement is largely alarmist and disingenuous. It thrives on misrepresentations of what CRT actually teaches, and of what is actually taught in most schools, in a way that demonizes discussions about systemic racism or unconscious bias in educational settings, or in some cases even discussions of America’s history of racism overall. However, even critics of the critical race theory backlash acknowledge that there’s a big gap between that freak-out and the full-throated white nationalism that the School of the West promotes. Most anti-CRT figures promote a willful colorblindness—often grounded in decontextualized and sanitized Martin Luther King Jr. quotes—that white nationalists find abhorrent.

But as Wendy K.Z. Anderson, an expert on critical race theory at the University of Minnesota, noted in an interview, some anti-CRT activists believe the framework is mainly “a mechanism to convey guilt onto white children.” Analyses have also suggested that the most fervent CRT debates track to areas experiencing notable demographic change. So there’s a current within the anti-CRT sphere that is anxious about and sensitive to perceived slights against whiteness, above all else.

White nationalists recognize that current. That’s why, Bjork-James argued, they ultimately “see in the current focus on critical race theory an opportunity to recruit new members.”

Or, as a far-right streamer put it in a conversation with Williams a few months back: “The anti-CRT movement, I think, is the best place to … present our movement.”

““I wouldn’t go so far as to use the School of the West to argue that homeschooling shouldn’t exist. But I think it shows what can happen when homeschooling is so unregulated: It opens itself up to these extremist ideologies.””

— Jameson Brewer

The streamer later added, “We need to co-opt that movement.”

In recent months, far-right figures like Candace Owens, Ron Paul, and Steve Bannon have urged families to consider homeschooling their kids to save their minds from supposed liberal racial propaganda. The number of homeschooled students in America has more than doubled since the spring of 2020, but it’s not clear how much of that tracks to anti-CRT sentiment. (Notably, the fastest-growing homeschooling demographics are actually people of color, many of whom opt for homeschooling to avoid systemic racism.) But the idea that families might heed these calls has seemingly captivated some extremist homeschooling curriculum developers, who’ve started to use explicit anti-CRT messaging to advertise their materials to anxious parents.

Hence the logic and appeal of seeding School of the West links in anti-CRT social-media circles. As Fording put it, the School and its advocates are “banking on the fact that there are people who are now not embarrassed to embrace their inner white nationalism due to the fact that their concerns [about so-called anti-white sentiments and policies] have been normalized.”

On a stream a few weeks back, when asked for his thoughts on rising anti-CRT furor, Williams said, “You have a population of parents that have finally woken up, because the anti-white material is being propagandized and advertised so loudly now that they can’t ignore it… So overall, I think this is a good thing.” He suggested that this popular outrage will bring some around to his line of thought, and to homeschooling.

The Daily Beast reached out to several prominent anti-CRT groups for comment on the School of the West and its and other white-nationalist groups’ apparent interest in co-opting them. Only one, Parents Against Critical Theory, replied. Their founder, Scott Mineo said he and his compatriots “do not believe in a race-based or -centric education, no matter the race,” and that he had never heard of the School of the West.

“I’m not here to judge how any family conducts the homeschooling of their kids,” he added. “It’s not my business, no matter the ethnicity.”

However, a few anti-CRT advocates appear to have noticed School of the West links showing up in their communities. One recent movement newsletter specifically called the School out, and took pains to instruct fellow activists not to be confused or seduced by white-nationalist rhetoric.

Khalilah Harris, an expert on education policy and critical race theory at the left-wing Center for American Progress, doubts that too many anti-CRT types will buy into the appeal of the School. Open white nationalism is still beyond the pale, even for many individuals with clear racial anxieties.

But most of the experts The Daily Beast spoke to believe that, even if the School doesn’t draw in a huge number of anti-CRT activists, it could still pull a non-negligible section of the movement into the white-nationalist orbit by stoking and affirming their worst race-based fears.

The open bigotry of the School of the West—and its potential for radicalizing adults and children alike—mean that “this project might be viewed by many as a threat to all of American society,” as Jim Dwyer, a law professor and author of a history of homeschooling in the U.S., put it.

But there are currently no clear legal injunctions against something like the School of the West. Although homeschooling laws vary from state to state, in most of the country, parents can basically teach their kids whatever they want at home. Even in states that require education in certain subjects and ask parents to submit curricula, it’s easy to tick all the right boxes on a form, then just teach whatever you like in practice. There’s no real follow-up. And as long as a parent is covering all the materials required, the state is not in a position to critique the ideological spin they may put on it.

“We have no meaningful checks on whether parents are teaching their children stuff we might think of as bad—in fundamental conflict with the values of our society, like white nationalism,” Elizabeth Bartholet, a legal scholar, child-welfare law expert, and critic of homeschooling norms and regulations, told The Daily Beast.

“I wouldn’t go so far as to use the School of the West to argue that homeschooling shouldn’t exist,” added Brewer, the homeschooling scholar. “But I think it shows what can happen when homeschooling is so unregulated: It opens itself up to these extremist ideologies.”

However, strong political trends and practical constraints pose obstacles to the implementation of any reforms that might meaningfully curb the use and abuse of homeschooling as a hate-indoctrination pipeline. “Even people who feel strongly that there should be more regulation and have recommended various changes will say, ‘But it’s hopeless,’” Bartholet said.

In other words, the School of the West likely won’t be going away anytime soon.

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Development-boosting Christmas activities for kids

Development-boosting Christmas activities for kids

 

Moms and dads and children open offers on Xmas early morning.

evgenyatamanenko | iStock | Getty Photos

If you might be struggling to locate approaches to entertain your kids this Christmas, authorities say there are a range of easy activities that are both of those entertaining and advantageous for their progress new technology.

Even though Christmas delivers the possibility for some high quality family members time, it can be difficult to keep kids occupied all through the split from college.

Parents may perhaps discover it specifically tough all over again this yr, as warning all-around the unfold of the omicron Covid-19 variant could guide to fewer vacation gatherings.

So as the holiday seasons stretch just before you, here are some suggestions of means to retain the youngsters entertained.

Each and every working day learning

Dan O’Hare, founder of Edpsy, an on the internet group for academic psychologists, explained that mom and dad shouldn’t experience that holiday activities need to have to be academic.

He advised CNBC by means of video clip contact that since quite a few youngsters returned to school total-time in the drop, there experienced been a “dominant narrative” that they desired to catch up on the learning they skipped even though becoming property-schooled, thanks to pandemic community health and fitness restrictions.

O’Hare mentioned that this was problematic for the reason that it can be a concept that has “stress constructed into it,” which children can decide up on.

He also pointed out that for young little ones in specific, there is certainly a ton of mastering built-in into day-to-day duties, so moms and dads shouldn’t sense like they have to have to produce new actions.

For instance, O’Hare explained that baking a cake consists of numeracy, creative imagination and practicing fantastic motor abilities.

He also stressed the price of play, as it will allow small children to “blow off steam” and aids them to develop negotiation and conflict resolution competencies.

Encouraging young children to do functions that require chatting is also useful, O’Hare reported, specified that the disruption of the pandemic has prevented them from interacting with other young children as a great deal. This could include things like narrating when they engage in, or encouraging siblings to function alongside one another on a undertaking, like building a fort.

Crafting Christmas playing cards or letters to Santa could also aid develop literacy expertise, O’Hare explained.

Board video games and decorations

Amanda Gummer, founder of the expertise enhancement firm the Good Play Guide, told CNBC by way of video phone that acquiring children associated in certain Christmas pursuits aided make the finding out “invisible,” so they do not look at it as a chore.

For younger kids, she stated that creating handmade Christmas decorations could enable with the enhancement of good motor techniques. “Gifting the decorations to other household users boosts their feeling of belonging way too,” Gummer additional.

Playing board video games as a family can assist boost father or mother-boy or girl conversation, she claimed. Board game titles are also pretty immersive, which can assist if kids are feeling nervous about the uncertainty all-around the omicron variant.

If kids are eager to master a lot more about the pandemic, Gummer recommended utilizing glitter to assist understand the transmission of the coronavirus and the have to have for social distancing.

Meanwhile, producing festive family walks into a treasure hunt can promote observation abilities, she claimed.

Even so, right after one more year of “worry and strain,” Gummer reported mother and father shouldn’t feel responsible about failing to regularly maintain their kids entertained more than the holiday seasons.

She proposed discovering routines that “everyone enjoys fairly than it becoming a little something on your to-do checklist that you come to feel guilty if you haven’t accomplished it effectively.”

Verify out: Small children in the Netherlands are between the world’s happiest. Here’s what the moms and dads do in different ways

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Pendleton Heights Gay-Straight Alliance wins injunction for access to school resources

A central Indiana faculty district have to give the community substantial school’s gay-straight alliance access to the identical advertising and marketing and fundraising assets as other noncurricular organizations, a federal choose has dominated, issuing an injunction following discovering a violation of the Equal Entry Act.

Judge James R. Sweeney of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana issued the injunction Wednesday against the South Madison School Company and Pendleton Heights Substantial University. The Pendleton Heights Homosexual-Straight Alliance filed a lawsuit in September alleging the constitutional legal rights of its users were violated when the team was allegedly dealt with in another way than other businesses at the higher faculty.

Exclusively, the GSA argued it was authorized to fulfill on the Pendleton Heights campus but was not permitted to use the school’s bulletin boards, market by way of the college radio station, fundraise or be mentioned in the faculty handbook.

In accordance to the college, only “corporation sponsored” clubs are specified access to these kinds of methods. One this kind of firm, the college explained, is the Outdoor Journey Club. But “noncorporation sponsored” clubs these as the GSA and Fellowship of Christian Athletes are permitted only to satisfy at the school, not accessibility the additional assets.

The college argued it handled all company sponsored golf equipment, which are curriculum-relevant, the exact, and all noncorporation sponsored golf equipment, which are not curriculum similar, the very same, so there was no equal safety violation. But Sweeney disagreed, relying on Bd. Of Educ. of Westside Cmty. Schs. V. Mergens, 496 U.S. 226 (1990) to find the school district experienced violated the Equivalent Obtain Act.

Mergens distinguished “noncurriculum related” university businesses from those associated to curriculum. To be curriculum associated, an organization will have to be required for a program, participation ought to outcome in tutorial credit rating, the organization’s topic make any difference must be related to the overall body of programs as a entire, or the subject matter make any difference need to be taught, or will before long be taught, in a often made available study course.

Any pupil team not meeting a person of people 4 things is “noncurriculum related” underneath Mergens, Sweeney wrote.

“The Outdoor Journey Club suits squarely in just the Mergens definition of ‘noncurriculum relevant,’ notwithstanding the School’s assertion usually,” he wrote. “And considering that the Out of doors Journey Club gets positive aspects the PHGSA does not — inclusion in the handbook, authorization to fundraise, access to the bulletin boards and radio station — the PHGSA’s rights have been violated less than the Act.”

Pendleton Heights argued the Outside Journey Club was curricular because it was “directly relevant to the actual physical education and learning curriculum” of the school. But “the School’s argument is virtually identical to the just one the Supreme Courtroom rejected in Mergens,” Sweeney wrote.

“There, faculty officials asserted that Subsurfers, a club for learners fascinated in scuba diving, was curriculum associated due to the fact it furthered ‘one of the necessary goals of the Physical Education Division — enabling students to build lifelong recreating pursuits.’ The Court turned down the idea that ‘curriculum related’ signifies ‘anything remotely linked to abstract academic objectives,’” Sweeney wrote.

“Like the Subsurfers scuba diving club, the Outdoor Experience Club is noncurriculum similar,” he continued. “And because the outdoor Journey Club can use the School’s bulletin boards, advertise as a result of bulletins on the School’s radio station, fundraise, and be listed in the scholar handbook, even though the PHGSA can’t, the PHGSA has been denied ‘equal access’ underneath the Act.”

The GSA had also raised 1st Modification and equivalent defense clause statements, but Sweeney did not address individuals challenges.

The decide concluded the elements of a preliminary injunction investigation weighed in favor of the GSA, even though the university argued “an injunction would power it to allow for all noncurriculum related groups to publicize, thereby turning two-to-3-moment school bulletins into a extended, unmanageable affair the bulletin boards would come to be lined with flyers and the student handbook would have to be reprinted.”

“Not only do these harms seem minimal,” the choose wrote, “but the School could mitigate them, this kind of as by instituting a just one-flyer-for every-club-for each-bulletin-board restrict, supplied the boundaries implement similarly to all noncurriculum connected teams or by prohibiting all noncurriculum similar clubs from assembly on campus, therefore steering clear of implication of the Act at all.”

And lastly, Sweeney selected to issue the injunction with no bond, discovering no probably financial hurt to the faculty.

The situation is Pendleton Heights Gay-Straight Alliance v. South Madison Neighborhood University Corporation, Principal, Pendleton Heights Significant Faculty, 1:21-cv-02480.