Teacher Discipline

Short memories for public corruption.

Dec 13, 2007 -KYFR-TV in North Dakota reports that the Education Standards and Practices Board is delaying action on two teachers convicted of crimes. The reason is that they have to notify the teachers and give them a chance to respond before taking action.

One of the educators was Elaine Incognito who was sentenced to five months in federal prison for stealing money from the Twin Buttes school district. She`s a former principal at the school.

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TT - Incognito was one of eight people convicted or sentenced in Bismark, North Dakota for rampant corruption in the Twin Buttes school district. Those convicted included Incognito, four school board members the school board president, a janitor, and the finance manager. TT-Link

It caused a Federal judge to remark, "Yet people kept electing these thieves back into office."

Bismark, NORTH DAKOTA

The judge said, "Yet people kept electing these thieves back into office."

Nov 21, 2007 - A federal judge sentenced a former school principal to prison and put a former custodian and board member on three years' probation. Three other former Twin Buttes school board members were sentenced in the past two weeks.

These three and four others were indicted more than a year ago after a lengthy investigation into school bookkeeping detailed rampant corruption in which all seven covered for each other while falsifying travel vouchers, endorsing school checks to one another and taking school cash.

• Twin Buttes school principal Elaine Incognito, 62, was sentenced to five months in prison followed by five months of electronically monitored home confinement. Ordered to repay $58,000.
• Hank Starr, 37, a former board member, was sentenced to three years' probation. Ordered to repay $29,500. He told the judge he was fired from his job the tribal water treatment plant near Twin Buttes because his status as a felon might jeopardize federal funds for the plant.
• Paul Fredericks, 53, a former janitor, sentenced to three years' probation. Ordered to repay $40,000.

U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland took Starr to task for the $40,000 spent by the school board on a holiday basketball tournament in 2004. The judge said the school board rented rooms for "days on end," and also used school money to pay for a party room during the tournament."That was an insane amount of money to spend,"he said.

Sentenced last week:

• Former school board president Melissa Starr was sentenced to federal prison for 18 months for stealing more than $300,000.
• Tammy Grady, a former board member, was sentenced to seven months. She was ordered to repay $92,000 .
• Darcy Lone Bear, also a board member, was given three years' probation . Was ordered to repay $24,000.

A former school finance manager, Lillian Holen, will be sentenced Tuesday. She stole $35,000, according to the original indictment.

The school is on the Fort Berthold Reservation.

Nov 27 - Holen was sentenced to serve three years of probation with six months of home confinement. The Judge also ordered Holen to pay restitution of $30,000.

Teacher Discipline

Nov 9, 2007 - The North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board voted to seek more information about criminal charges against two teachers.

The teachers are Danny G. Taylor, 48, of Schroeder Middle School. Accused of fondling a woman knowing she was intoxicated and unaware of what was happening. Charged with gross sexual imposition. UPDATE: Taylor was acquitted

Tracy R. Hanzal, 29, was charged in August in Mountrail County with delivering alcohol to minors, for an incident alleged to have happened in April . He resigned and moved to Bismarck, according to ESPB records, and is now teaching at Fort Yates Middle School.

While investigating Tracy Hanzal for inappropriate use of his cell phone (text messaging 14 and 15-year-old girls during the school day), it was discovered that Tracy was also purchasing alcohol for students during the school year. Specifically, Tracy Hanzal was buying beer for members of the track team he coached,” Stanley wrote.

The board's lawyer suggested they seek information from law enforcement and prosecution sources before they consider what action to take.

Bismark, NORTH DAKOTA

You can have sex with students and do six months in jail or get probation. But kill a few birds and they REALLY throw the book at you.

Oct 12, 2007 -

The state board that licenses teachers will investigate whether to discipline a Valley City man recently sentenced in federal court for killing dozens of raptors and other migratory birds.

Fifty-eight-year-old Alvin Schumacher teaches math and science at North Central Public School at Rogers. He was sentenced to 18 months of probation after pleading guilty in June to the hunting violations. (He also has to pay $20,000 in "restitution to the government.")

The Education Standards and Practices Board decided this week to look into whether Schumacher's conviction makes him a poor role model for students.

TT - To their credit, the North Dakota Education Standards and Practices Board has their Code of Ethics online where it is easily located and their Board meeting minutes are all online.

Perhaps that is why in one year of this blog, there has only been one North Dakota teacher arrested and sentenced for sex with a student.

(Two others were mentioned in minutes during 2007 as having been sentenced, but their offenses were not given and no information was available online.)

Finley, NORTH DAKOTA

TRIAL DATE SET: Jan 4, 2007 - A trial date has been set for Jonathan Champagne, charged with sexual assault and corruption or solicitation of a minor. He's accused of having sex with a 17-year-old female student.

Champagne's trial is set for February 21st. From KFYR 550AM: "Champagne was hired as a math teacher at a high school in Crookston (Minnesota) but he was fired last month because of the pending charges."

GUILTY PLEA AND SENTENCE: Mar 28 - Champagne pleaded guilty to corruption of a minor. Under the plea agreement, he was sentenced to five years in prison with all but 60 days suspended. Two other counts of corruption of a minor, one count of sexual assault and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor were dropped.

LICENSE REVOKED: May 10 - The Education Standards and Practices Board voted unanimously to revoke the license of Jonathan Champagne. Assistant Attorney General Bill Peterson says state law mandates the revocation.