04-04-2025
Grand Forks Public Schools will shift principals at three schools, seek new principal to lead Winship
Apr. 3—GRAND FORKS — Principals at three Grand Forks elementary schools will be reassigned to new schools next year and a new principal will be hired at Winship Elementary.
The current principals of Winship, Lake Agassiz and Lewis and Clark elementary schools will be shifted to lead other elementary schools within the district, including to fill a vacancy at Viking Elementary that will open up when current Principal Jolyn Bergstrom retires at the end of the year.
Winship Principal Travis Thorvilson will go to Lake Agassiz, Lake Agassiz Principal Angela Jonasson will go to Lewis and Clark, and Lewis and Clark Principal Loren Hoheisel will run Viking Elementary.
Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Education Matt Bakke confirmed the forthcoming changes to school leadership in a Thursday phone call.
"We've made some changes internally to feed to the strengths of the administrators," he said.
An email went out to school district employees around 3:30 p.m., while families at the four affected schools were notified at 4 p.m.
Bakke says administrators have been meeting to discuss the future of schools leadership since Bergstrom, who joined the district from Cavalier in 2015, submitted her resignation in January.
Staff at Winship, Lake Agassiz and Lewis and Clark learned about the forthcoming changes from their principals on Wednesday.
The district will begin accepting applications for the Winship vacancy on Friday.
One former educator who remains involved with school activities said she does not recall a previous instance when three principals were shifted to new schools at the same time.
"I've not seen it happen quite like this before," she said.
Bakke said he could recall times when the district had shifted multiple administrators at once, though he could not speak to the number of administrators whose roles had changed at any one time.
Bakke worked as a teacher and Title I program coordinator in the district from 2012 to 2018 before accepting his current position in 2023.
The district's current employee manual for classified personnel states employees may be reassigned to another job within the same building or another building entirely.
Reassignment decisions are made by the employee's supervisor in conjunction with the district human resources director.
Bakke said Thorvilson, Hoheisel and Jonasson had not applied to their new roles but he'd held "many conversations" with them before their job changes were announced.
"I trust the administrators and I believe the administrators trust me in in the fact that their strengths are going to align well with the buildings they're going to," he said. "I believe this is in the best interest of our educational community."
Thorvilson and Hoheisel had not returned phone calls as of Thursday afternoon. Jonasson is on leave until Monday and could not be reached, according to Lake Agassiz's front office.
Grand Forks Principals Association President Terry Bohan said he had no additional information to share besides what had been shared with employees earlier Thursday.
In response to a request for comment, School Board President Dave Berger wrote in a text message it is "not the School Board's role or prerogative to have a say in or comment on district operations."
He added he trusted Bakke to "make the best decisions possible for our district."
