2025 Fall Conference
Bismarck, ND
Saturday, October 4th
North Dakota Kindergarten Association
#NDKARocks
Note from the President
Hello North Dakota K-Team!
2025 Fall Conference....
Preliminary plans have started for the 2025 Fall Conference. The Bismarck K-Team will be hosting.
Every year we look forward to coming together to share ideas and hear amazing keynote speakers at the North Dakota Kindergarten Conference. At our 2024 Conference, we welcomed Holly Ehle (ee-lee) to North Dakota. She shared so much research and knowledge about the Science of Reading. Her focus was on the bottom part of Scarborough's Rope along with brain research.
WELL . . . WE ARE BRINGING HER BACK! This year, her focus will be on the top part of Scarborough's Rope and we will be learning more about language comprehension, vocabulary, and literacy knowledge. Another book study is being developed for participants that need a graduate credit.
Please continue to check our website and Facebook page as we update them with information about the 2025 Fall Conference. We look forward to seeing you in Bismarck, North Dakota on October 4th.
Elizabeth Kuelbs
NDKA President
NDKA Newsletters
Click on the link below to download a PDF of our current or past Newsletters.
Registration & Conference Info
Included
NDKA Conference Rotation 2020 - Virtual
2021 - Virtual
2022 - Minot
2023 - Casselton
2024 - Mandan
2025 - Bismarck
2026 - Jamestown
2027 - Fargo
2028 - Grand Forks
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NDKA Constitution
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Heather & Amy were finalists for 2016 ND Teacher of the Year!
Two kindergarten teachers from the North Dakota Kindergarten Association Executive Board were state finalists for North Dakota Teacher of the Year.
Heather Tomlin-Rohr, Secretary from Jamestown and Amy Neal, Treasurer from Minot were recognized as finalists. Other finalists were Matt Myrold of Fargo and Heath Rydell of West Fargo.
Heather and Amy had no idea that they would run into each other until they met at a luncheon during the interview process in August of 2015. They have known each other for several years through their affiliation with NDKA. Having two kindergarten teachers represented among the 4 Finalists just goes to show that KINDERGARTEN ROCKS!
On September 23rd, 2015, Amy Neal was the recipient of the 2016 North Dakota TOY recognition during a ceremony at Lewis & Clark Elementary School in Minot. Governor Jack Dalrymple and Superintendent Kirsten Baesler were in attendance to recognize all finalists for their outstanding service to children in North Dakota.
Pre-K Makes Some Headway in North Dakota
by: Shelly Murphy
NDKA Vice President
During the 2013 North Dakota 63rd Legislative Assembly, two pre-school bills, Senate Bill 2229 and House Bill 1429, were introduced to legislators to provide funding for pre-k programs in North Dakota schools.
Initially the two bills were identical, but in the end one bill would allow for local funding if a school district should choose to provide pre-k within their own district. The second bill allowed funding for a study to assess pre-k needs in ND.
This pre-K study is currently being undertaken by the DPI and a committee of ND stakeholders with the help of Coloradan consultants. This study is due by the end of May and will be presented to the legislature in June.
NDKA is able to have a representative, Deb Ahmann from Bismarck Public Schools, to serve on the committee.
The downloadable PDF document is a copy of our organization's constitution.
Please feel free to download and review it.
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NDKA Regional Map
This map indicates the four regions of our state where we have representatives for our executive board.
RESPECT
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Friendship
& educate
collaboration
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Early Childhood Care & Education Committee
by: Deb Ahmann
NDKA State Rep
The Early Childhood Committee will meet numerous times this year under the direction of Dr. Carrie Germeroth, University of Denver, MCREL.
The purpose of this committee is to report Pre-K needs to Kirsten Baesler, DPI Superintendent, with information in the following areas:
*define the meaning of quality early childhood education.
*track trends and monitor implementations & assessments currently utilized across all state-wide early childhood agencies.
*identify and collect fiscal data for private and public child care providers.
*coordinate focus groups with public and private care providers throughout the state after receiving information from the data collected from surveys and other means.
The committee members are from a variety of early childhood advocacy groups from across North Dakota and Deb Ahman gets to represent NDKA on the committee.