New-Rockford-Sheyenne School receives Governor's Award

New Rockford-Sheyenne School District received the first-ever System Transformation Award at the second annual Governor's Summit on Innovative Education on Thursday, June 7. The event was held at Northern Cass School near Hunter.

New Rockford-Sheyenne School District was selected as one of three finalists for the award after being nominated by Superintendent Jill Louters. Award winners were selected by the Innovative Education Task Force.

Three other statewide #InnovativeND Awards also were presented during the summit:

 • The Frontline Innovation Award went to Brian Price, Darryl Duttenhefner and Staceyann Ziemann of the Bismarck Public Schools Vision 2030 team.

 • Abrar Sharfi, a sophomore at Fargo South High School received the Student Leadership Award

 • Winner of the Collaborative Culture Award was Kindred Elementary School

Nearly 500 people registered for the summit, which was sponsored by the Governor's Office, the state Department of Public Instruction and the Bush Foundation. 

Among the presenters was Northern Cass Superintendent Cory Steiner, who emphasized the need to transform education and highlighted the district's efforts to personalize learning. Northern Cass was the first district to submit a "Senate Bill 2186" plan, named for the bill passed by the 2017 Legislature and signed by Gov. Burgum that gives school districts the flexibility to submit innovative education plans that provide more local control to meet their schools' individual needs.

"We have the skills and the technology and all of the pieces right here in this room to do things differently," said Steiner, who serves on the Innovative Education Task Force announced at last year's summit in Bismarck. "This is not something we do as individuals. This is something we do together."