Sen. Ray Holmberg (R-Grand Forks)
BY: MARY STEURER
BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota School Boards Association ended a nearly 20-year relationship with international cultural exchange program Global Bridges after a complaint against the association was filed with the North Dakota Ethics Commission.
It’s unclear if the complaint relates to former Sen. Ray Holmberg, who took several international trips through Global Bridges and is facing federal allegations of child sex tourism.
For years, teachers and lawmakers went on state-subsidized trips abroad to participate in Global Bridges programs. The trips were approved by the Legislature and organized by the School Boards Association.
North Dakota’s involvement with the Berlin-based organization came under scrutiny last year after Holmberg was indicted on allegations he committed sex crimes while in Prague. Holmberg went to Prague while in Europe for Global Bridges trips, records compiled by the North Dakota School Boards Association and reviewed by the North Dakota Monitor indicate.
The ethics complaint filed against the North Dakota School Boards Association has been closed, and the nature of the complaint remains confidential under state law, Ethics Commission Executive Director Rebecca Binstock said Tuesday.
She said the association and complainant resolved the complaint informally. The School Boards Association agreed to sever ties with Global Bridges as part of that arrangement.
According to data compiled by Legislative Council, the state earmarked $830,000 in taxpayer money in Department of Public Instruction budgets for the program between 2007 and 2017.
The Legislature put the Schools Boards Association in charge of administering the funding.
The association in January voluntarily returned about $142,000 previously earmarked for Global Bridges trips to the Department of Public Instruction, Dale Wetzel, a spokesperson for the department, said in a Tuesday email. The Department of Public Instruction gave the money back to the state general fund, Wetzel said.
A Tuesday announcement from the Ethics Commission said the association gave the money back “on its own initiative,” and that the decision was not related to the ethics complaint.
Jon Martinson, a former executive director of the School Boards Association who serves as the North Dakota project director for the Global Bridges program, said he was not aware the association had returned the money until Tuesday.
“I was surprised and disappointed,” Martinson said. “It’s a wonderful program.”
The program is meant to help North Dakota educators, Martinson said.
“The idea is that our teachers get first-hand experience, not things written in a textbook, but first-hand experience they can bring back to their middle school or high school students to help educate them about Germany,” he said.
In a statement to the North Dakota Monitor, Superintendent of Public Instruction Kirsten Baesler said the Department of Public Instruction never asked for Global Bridges trips to be part of its budgets. She also noted the Legislature denied requests by the Department of Public Instruction to require the School Boards Association to report how the money was spent.
“We’re grateful for the North Dakota School Boards Association’s steps to resolve this issue and to the North Dakota Ethics Commission for its work,” Baesler said in the statement. “I hope in the future that the Department’s budget legislation language will keenly focus on the academic needs of our K12 students with accountability to the taxpayers and include meaningful reporting and financial transparency.”
Holmberg, who resigned from the Legislature in 2022, was the longtime chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee.
A federal indictment of Holmberg accuses him of paying to have sex with minors in Prague between 2011 and 2016. Holmberg has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and has said his attorney has advised him not to comment to the media. He is set to go to trial on Sept. 9.
It was first reported last fall that Holmberg went to Prague during his trips to Europe for Global Bridges.
While Global Bridges did not appear to have any events in Prague during those trips, the School Boards Association approved requests by Holmberg to travel to the Czech Republic.
The North Dakota School Boards Association executive director was out of the office Tuesday and not available for comment.
State law allows for complaints to the Ethics Commission to be resolved informally before they’re investigated. In this scenario, the Ethics Commission acts as the mediator between the complainant and the accused. If a complaint is resolved informally, the complaint is closed with no investigation.
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