Minnesota and North Dakota Voter's Guide

Forum Communications Co., in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Minnesota and of North Dakota, is providing this voter guide to help keep you informed ahead of the 2024 election.

  • Learn where candidates running for office in your community stand on the issues.
  • Build your ballot before voting. Print or email the information to use as a reference when you actually vote.

We do not save your information; it will be lost when you leave this page. Only candidates that appear on your ballot will be listed. Additional information may be available for your area so be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for other voters’ guides.

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Voter Guide

ISD #22 School Board Member {_getChooseLabel(this.selections.length)}

School board members oversee the care, management, and control of schools. This includes hiring, firing, and overseeing superintendents, who manage the day-to-day affairs of the district. They also set levies to fund the district and create school policies. Learn more here: https://www.lwv.org/blog/voting-local-matters-why-vote-school-boardIf your candidate didn’t fill in the guide below, visit the Secretary of State’s Candidate Filing site to find contact info (https://candidates.sos.mn.gov/). If you reach out, ask candidates to complete their Vote411 Voters Guide from LWVMN!

Click a candidate icon to find more information about the candidate. To compare two candidates, click the "compare" button. To start over, click a candidate icon.

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    Emmeline Bartnes
    (NP)

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    Kurt Christianson
    (NP)

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    Tim Grzybowski
    (NP)

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    Gregory Mark Johnson
    (NP)

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    Katie Large
    (NP)

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    Jonathan Melgaard
    (NP)

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    Michelle Okeson
    (NP)

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    Mary Rotter
    (NP)

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    Janine Schneider
    (NP)

Biographical Information

Why are you the best candidate for this position? (750 characters)

If elected, what will your top three priorities be and why? (500 characters)

If forced to cut the budget in the face of declining revenues, what would be your strategy? (500 characters)

How would you address any racial and economic disparities in our education system? (500 characters)

Please describe how you will engage teachers and families in your decision making process. (500 characters)

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My professional history was managing Young Life Castaway Club and taught me about managing multi million dollar budgets and managing and caring for people. My current work with Project 412 has shown me the beauty, depth and generosity of our community. I have worked with the city, county, businesses, and individuals and discovered how unique our community is. My greatest asset though is my high involvement in our community. From music and the arts, to volunteering with high school organizations, being a long time Young Leader, coaching at the middle school, my connection to the community is strong and puts me in a unique position to serve our schools.
With any organization, fiscal health is of most importance because it drives so much of what you can do. Communication and my relationship with the district teachers, staff, and adminstration would be next. They are the "boots on the ground" and need to be heard. Finally, communication and feedback with the district citizens, particularly parents is crucial because we are a representative government body.
First and foremost, effective long-range planning is necessary so we can begin to make adjustments and create expectations ahead of time. Communication is critical. We should always have an emergency plan in place ahead of time as well and recognize and agree on areas where cuts would have the least impact on the educational environment.
There are a number of social services and volunteers which could come into play. Recognizing the needs and disparities, making sure they are getting the services they need, and not ignoring them. I would also advocate that taking care of those with disparities means we are taking care of everyone.
My goal as a school board member will be to make regular visits to the schools and engage teachers, staff, and administrators. I'm a strong believer in earning the right and building trust. The same can be said for building trust among families. It would mean showing up at events and places where conversations can happen. Nothing beats meeting people face to face. Finally responding to communications with me in a timely manner.
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I'm a Laker, class of 2011. Band, choir, eleven musicals, valedictorian, student council president, and a diving team that took me to a state title and then to the Gophers. The college classes I took right here let me finish the University of Minnesota a year early. A town of nine thousand did that for me.

My mom taught music in these schools for 25 years. I watched the job get harder from our kitchen table.

I spent fifteen years building education programs at the Barry Foundation and with the Aspen Ideas Festival — then came home on purpose to build companies here.

Detroit Lakes gave me a great deal, and I'd like to give some of it back.
Enrollment, first. It decides the budget, the staffing, and how many sections we offer. We can't out-recruit demographics, so we have to be the district families choose on purpose.

Second, support teachers. They're the reason a district is good. Give them resources, trust, and time, and clear away what gets in the way.

Third, protect what's distinctive — college coursework, the arts, activities. Those are our advantage, not the first thing to cut when money is tight.
Start with the numbers, not a list. Go program by program: what it costs, who it serves, what dropping it would cost us in students.

Then cut furthest from the classroom first — administration and overhead before teachers, sections, and activities. Trimming what families choose us for produces more shrinking, and open enrollment makes leaving easy.

Show the tradeoffs publicly before the vote. And keep pressing the state, where unfunded mandates like special education drain the general fund.
Look at who actually gets the opportunities. Which kids are in college coursework, band, and sports, and which aren't — and why. Often the answer isn't attitude, it's a fee, a ride home, a device, or nobody ever asking them.

A board can fix those. Fund the ride, waive the fee, make the invitation deliberate.

Then check the numbers by group each year and say out loud whether the gap is closing.
Get input before the decision, not after. Standing time with teachers and families, asking the people closest to the work what a policy will actually do — early enough that what they say can still change it.

Then take the pain points seriously enough to fix them. Much of what wears teachers and parents down isn't policy, it's friction: the schedule, the form, the process nobody can navigate.

I've spent fifteen years designing programs around exactly that kind of problem.
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Powered by League of Women Voters Education Fund

The League of Women Voters of Minnesota and North Dakota crafted the questions sent to the candidates in the Spring of 2024. They reached out to candidates based on contact information in their public candidate filings. Candidates with email addresses were invited and reminded with emails. Candidates with only mailing addresses were sent a letter. Candidates with phone numbers received a phone call as well.

Candidate responses are published as they responded and have not been edited, except when responses were longer than the given character limit. In those cases, the responses are truncated.

VOTE411 is brought to you by the League of Women Voters Education Fund and League of Women Voters of Minnesota Education Fund. The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any political party or candidate for office.