West Fargo schools business manager, Westhope woman chosen for North Dakota public education board – InForum

WEST FARGO — A West Fargo school administrator who worked for the North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has been appointed to the State Board of Public School Education, according to a news release.

Levi Bachmeier,

business manager for West Fargo Public Schools, will serve a six-year term on the oversight board for K-12 and career and technical education in North Dakota, the Department of Public Instruction said in the Tuesday, May 21, release. The newcomer to the board joins incumbent Lyndsi Engstrom, a Westhope woman and chief operations officer for the Central Regional Education Association, who was reappointed, the release said.

Their terms will begin July 1.

Burgum appointed Engstrom and Bachmeier. Bachmeier worked for Burgum’s 2016 gubernatorial campaign and later served in the governor’s office as an adviser. He then became Burgum’s policy director in 2018 before coming to West Fargo School District in 2019.

He was a social studies teacher and acting high school principal on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

Engstrom and Bachmeier were among a list of candidates submitted by the North Dakota United, the North Dakota Council of Educational Leaders and the North Dakota School Boards Association, according to the release.

The board is made up of six members appointed by Burgum, plus state Superintendent Kirsten Baesler. It makes final decisions on annexations, dissolutions, reorganizations and voluntary transfers of property owned by school districts in North Dakota, according to its website.

Engstrom represents Benson, Bottineau, Cavalier, McHenry, Pembina, Pierce, Ramsey, Renville, Rolette, Towner and Walsh counties. Bachmeier will represent Barnes, Cass, Grand Forks, Griggs, Nelson, Steele and Traill counties, the release said.

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