The annual School Board Election for the Devils Lake School District is right around the corner on Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
School district residents will vote to fill two three-year terms on the Board. The following candidates have filed for these positions:
Emily Foss
Emily Foss is originally from a farm north of Michigan, ND. She attended school in Adams and went to college in Moorhead, MN. She moved to Devils Lake two years ago because she “met a boy and fell in love.” That “boy” is 47-year old Peter Foss, who is quite well known in this community. They dated for a couple of years and made it official this past September 3.
The Foss family also has four children, Terrance is 20 and lives in Fargo, Molly is an 8th grader, Anna a sixth grader and Ben is a 3rd grader. The younger three live here in Devils Lake.
Emily said before moving to Devils Lake she toured the city’s schools and was quite impressed with what she saw. “I really liked the White Horse Hill outdoor learning experience available to the students here and the opportunity through LRSC for dual credit education. I was impressed with the Devils Lake school system.”
When asked “Why she wanted to run for the school board,” she replied,”Most of the time you hear people say they want to serve on a school board because they say they can ‘do better’ than those currently serving on the board, but for me, that isn’t the case. When we took the tour of Devils Lake schools when they were working on the recent referendum, I was impressed with the board members I met, I found them to be hands-on and very knowledgeable about what was going on. It made me want to be a part of such a dynamic board of directors.”
Emily is currently working two positions in the community as a nurse supervisor with Sanford and the official nurse provider for Devils Lake Corrections. As of June 19 her focus will be solely on the Corrections position.
Blaine Volk
Blaine Volk is from the Strausburg, Hague area of southern ND but he went to college in Devils Lake and this is where he met and married his wife, Karla Schmaltz. They have three children, twin 7th grade boys and a girl who is a 2nd grader. Blaine has worked for 22 years at Camp Grafton in CSMS as a mechanic inspector supervisor. He’s been in the National Guard for 31 years.
He says he’s running because he believes it is the perfect time for a change on the Board. He’s been a Ramsey County Commissioner for the past few years, so he’s learned a great deal in that time about spending on a local level. He strongly believes it would be better for the community of Devils Lake if we were all one. Rather than having all these additions that don’t have the same standing as the city has. He would advocate annexing in the surrounding additions so we all would be together in both receiving services and giving support.
He also believes the school board meetings should be publicized, like the city commission and county commission meetings are and that citizens should be allowed to make comments and ask questions at those public meetings without having to go through the process of being put on the agenda and having it approved beforehand.
Volk also questioned whether the city can realistically support five schools in the long-term, as it does now. “We need to consider our tax base.” Perhaps, he says, it would be better if there could be fewer schools where one could be a more up-to-date, possibly new building, rather than the five aging buildings all badly in need of renovation, repairs and up-dating.
“I don’t have all the answers,” Volk says, but he’s not afraid to ask the questions and look outside normal parameters for solutions, either.
Cory Meyer
Cory Meyer is originally from Breckinridge, MN, grew up in the small town of Overly, ND (between Bottineau and Rugby) and attended school in Willow City. He came to Devils Lake and LRSC after studying a while in Dickinson and Minot. When he first got here, to save money, Cory moved into the Fire Department as a live-in worker for the Department. Devils Lake and yes, probably the DL Fire Department have been his home ever since then. While studying automotive technology at LRSC he met and married Tammy Abernathy from Lansford, ND. They have two children, a daughter who is 22 and a son, 19, who recently graduated from DLHS. His proud dad, as the present chair of the DL School Board, was on the stage on Memorial Day as his son walked across. He even checked to make sure the diploma was signed and stopped for a quick selfie with his boy, grinning from ear-to-ear.
Meyer was appointed to the School Board in 2015, when Veronica Nicla moved away. Each term is usually three years, but he finished out Nica’s term then ran successfully for two more three year terms. Now he’s running for his third term.
“It’s been a good experience,” Cory says, admitting that Covid-19 complicated lots of things in recent years. “All along, I’ve been about what’s best for the kids, first, and the staff, and the community, too,” he added.
“I personally enjoyed high school and find that my kids had pretty much the same experience I had. A good education is a good foundation for life,” Cory stated. He says he sees the School Board as a team of five people who work towards giving kids that ability to have a good experience in school, with employees and teachers happy and success for everyone.
Amy Lee
Amy Lee grew up in Devils Lake, attended Prairie View and Central Middle School and was in the first class in the new Devils Lake High School when it was completed in ‘92. During high school she interned at KZZY for high school credits doing secretarial work and even some commercials, she said she enjoyed that work very much. For the past 22 years, though, she has been an insurance agent with Rich Sager Crop Insurance. She says of herself, “I am dedicated and loyal person.”
Lee is the mother of three grown sons and has two grandsons. Her life is full. So why does she want to run for a position on the School Board? She explained, “A few years ago I was watching what was going on in education across the country and grew concerned. I went to meeting after meeting and decided not to run for the School Board both times it came up, even though I felt drawn to it.”
Why now? “I guess you’d say I feel I can be a voice for the taxpayer, for the people on a local level. I’m not going to wait for someone else to do it anymore.”
“I’m not a political person,” Amy continues, “but I feel guided, maybe directed to do this for our children.”
She shared some statistics about the Devils Lake School System ranking 421 out of 459. That’s in student proficiency taken directly from the DPI website, she said. “I’d love to see that ranking for Devils Lake be so much better.”
Lee admits we need to do better, “Our kids deserve better.”
She showed some results from a survey taken to discern priorities in the community when it came to allocating $6 million in Esser Funds and at the top was CMS Boiler and AC for $6M. Other results recommended giving $5K to each teacher and para; fully funding the school lunch program for a number of years; and dividing that money up between the city’s schools as educational incentives. Lee felt this kind of feedback, obtained through Social Media, could help establish priorities to deal with the issues the system faces. “I want to sit with families and learn what concerns they have for the future of education in our city.”
Daniel “Dan” Lebrun
Dan Lebrun grew up in Langdon, then Minot, before going to NDSSS to study Deisel Technology, then LRSC to get an automotive degree. Since then he has worked as a deisel mechanic. He married Megan Flom from Devils Lake and they live on a farm north of Crary. They have three girls and two boys: ages 17, 15, 11, six and 14 months. Dan worked for Butler, Bobcat and NDDOT before going into full-time farming in the Brocket area where they raise corn, soybeans and canola.
When asked why he wanted to run for the School Board, Dan said he’d gotten some encouragement from friends in the community who thought he would be a good candidate. “We do have four kids in the Devils Lake system and one more coming up and we thought it would be a good thing to be involved in our kids’ education,” Lebrun explained.
He says both he and his wife have been active in the community, through coaching, 4-H shooting sports and so on. “We want the school to move forward, improve facilities – we have a good thing going here in the Lake Region – I’d like to see it keep going in the right direction.”
Dan says he’s definitely not a politician, “I’m a farmer, a husband and a dad – that’s what is important to me!” “I think it is important to want to help and to be willing to be a part of the solution. That’s how I see it.”
The Lebruns stay involved and are always on the go, but that’s how good things happen, busy people step up to volunteer to do what needs to be done.
Britton Lagasse
In his own words, “I’m Britton Lagasse. I was born and raised in Devils Lake. Have lived here most of my life. I work for Otter Tail Power Company as an Electrical Tech. I have also worked for Bergstrom Electric in Devils Lake. I am married to Brianna Lagasse who was employed by DLPS. I have three kids; Hunter who will be a 6th Grader, Colt who is 2 yrs old and Ainsley who is 11 months today.”
“The reason I am running for School Board is because I think we need to take care of our staff better than we currently do. The Teachers and Support Staff for the district are the ones that are needed. I understand that the Board can not just roll over and give the Staff what they want but I think they need to figure something out and if elected I would be reach out to other Districts and see how they are doing things. Im also running because I want to be a voice for the staff and parents. If elected I would be an active sighting in the Schools during the day. I am also running because the District does need some building upgrades and renovations but I think we need to do that in steps and not all at once. Like putting in AC at middle school and building a hallway between DLHS and the VoTech. Take small steps forward to get us to the big projects. If we go forward with a new building I think we need make sure we have buyers for the old buildings so we aren’t strapping Tax Payers with the burden of maintenance of both buildings.”
Note from Editor: Regretfully, efforts to contact Valorie Carlson, who also is running for the School Board, and to get her story and photo for this publication were unsuccessful. – Louise Oleson, editor