Newsletters

NCEC is very excited to welcome Tonya Hunskor and Leah Johnson to the team!

Tonya Hunskor is newly retired from TGU Granville where she served as principal for 21 years. While there she was involved with Professional Development, Backpack Buddies, Honor Society Advisor, Coach and Athletic Director.

Tonya earned her Masters of Educational Leadership from the University of Mary and is actively involved with NDCEL, the Governing Board, and the Principal Mentorship program. Tonya will be leading the Principal PLC and providing Cognia and CSI/TSI assistance.

Leah Johnson has been an educator for 26 years, most recently as the ELA teacher at Rugby High School and adjunct professor for Dakota College at Bottineau. While there, she served on the school improvement, professional development, grading and reporting, and RTI/MTSS committees.

Leah earned her Masters in Educational Leadership from NDSU. She has served as an instructional coach and ND Teacher Support System Mentor and helped create the mentorship program at Rugby High. 

Leah will be leading the Beginning Teacher Network and assisting with building and managing professional development courses on the ND Educational Hub.

The NCEC region is very fortunate to have the experience and knowledge these two bring to the team.

Welcome aboard!

The NCEC Educational Hub is now the North Dakota Educational Hub!

The online platform will allow all seven Regional Educational Agencies and the North Dakota Department of Instruction to house professional development and resources in one centralized, easy to access location.

The new URL is my.ndeducationalhub.org

Be sure to bookmark the page!

Current courses available free of charge statewide are:

Science of Reading Courses

• N.D. Department of Public Instruction has contracted with NDREA to provide statewide professional learning opportunities to support school districts in meeting the literacy requirements of North Dakota Century Code 15.1-21-12.1.

The first 10-15 minutes of each Chat will feature a SPOTLIGHT program followed by a more in-depth featured topic. The Chats are designed to be engaging and inactive and the goal is that School Counselors will leave with the tools they need to design a comprehensive school counseling program to meet the needs of all students. 

Please join us every 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday of the month! 

Register Here

Principal PLC--The first Principal PLC will meet Thursday September 22 in Rugby. Future Dates TBD. Contact Tonya Hunskor for more information.

Fine Arts Education PLC --  Save the Dates!

9 am to 2 pm -- September 29, December 1, February 16, April 20

Music Education PLC -- Save the Dates!

9 am to 2 pm -- September 21, November 30, February 15, April 19 

Contact Katie Saykally for more information on the Music and Art PLCs.

The Beginning Teacher Network (BTN) is back for another year of supporting beginning teachers in our area schools.

This year, there are 24 teachers in 7 districts participating in the BTN. We are so excited to work with each of them!

Programming this year will focus on professional goal-setting, observation and feedback cycles, lesson planning and differentiation, and many other areas of learning for new teachers.

Another important focus of BTN is helping new professionals build their professional network of peers. The meetings will be a mix of important professional learning and making connections with colleagues.

We hope you will make use of this support service! BTN is funded through a grant from the Department of Public Instruction and is meant to supplement the Teacher Support System (TSS or mentorship program).

Save these dates on your calendar:

• September 21 -- Virtual
• October -- Individual meetings -- In person
• November 2 -- Virtual
• November-December -- Individual meetings -- In person
• January 16 -- In person (January In-Service - Rugby)
• March-April -- Individual meetings -- In person
• Last Meeting -- In person -- May 3 (Rugby) OR May 10 (Bottineau)

Any questions or suggestions about BTN can be directed to Leah Johnson 

Check DPI Science of Reading page often for updates and resources.

NCEC & DCB hosted their 10th annual Fall College and Career Fair Friday, September 16. Over 200 students from eight schools attended informational sessions on agriculture, nursing, education, engineering, law enforcement, emergency response and STEM areas.

Save the date! 

STEM Career Day 2023 will be March 14 at DCB. 

About the Survey

Millions of professionals and volunteers work with young people every day in the many settings where youth play, learn, and grow outside of the school day. Yet, we have little collective information about this essential workforce.

We want to know more about those who are still in the youth fields and those who left, so that we can explore, define, and elevate this collective workforce and their work with youth. The information from the Power of Us Workforce Survey can also lead to action, informing policy, practice, and further research to better support the workforce.

We believe that if we know more, we can do more.

Take the Survey Here

NCEC was again awarded a three-year grant for the 21st CCLC Before and After School Program. The sites included in this grant cycle are Westhope, Bottineau, TGU Granville, TGU Towner, Dunseith, Dunseith Day School, Ojibwa Indian School, Turtle Mountain Elementary, Turtle Mountain Middle, St. Ann's Catholic School, St. John, and Anamoose.

The newest grant award introduces use of the ND Afterschool Network Quality Standards for Out of School Time Programs. Each site will do a self-evaluation using the standards at the beginning and end of each school year. Evaluation findings will be used for setting goals for the year, addressing areas for improvement, and highlighting successes.

The Ojibwa Indian School is a new site to the program. We are excited to work with the Ojibwa school and Gaylene Parisian, the program Site Coordinator.

Welcome!

Site Coordinators' Corner

The next NCEC 21st CCLC Site Coordinator monthly meeting is Thursday, September 22 at 3:30 pm.  

Dates to Remember:

• October 3 - Attendance Due
• October 13 -- Site Coordinator Monthly Meeting
• October 14 -- Quarterly Report Due