A North Dakota The school board organization has returned more than $140,000 to the state and ended its role in the teacher exchange program, months after an indictment was unsealed against a former state legislator who traveled to Europe with state money and was later charged with traveling to Prague with the intent to pay for sex with a minor.
The director of the North Dakota School Boards Association said the group was already discussing ending its involvement with the Germany-based Global Bridges program. Former Republican State Senator Ray Holmberg The indictment, and though his case wasn’t the driver, “whatever happened probably accelerated that discussion.”
“We had been working to align our organization’s activities with our mission, and the timing was right,” Executive Director Alexis Baxley told The Associated Press.
The state Ethics Commission announced the refund Tuesday. In January, the association’s board of directors voted to end its role as fiscal agent for the program and return the remaining $142,000 to the state Department of Public Instruction, according to a letter from the department provided to the AP.
North Dakota Sen. Ray Holmberg, R-Grand Forks, speaks on the Senate floor at the state Capitol in Bismarck, N.D., in November 2021. The North Dakota School Board Organization has returned more than $140,000 to the state and ended its role in a teacher exchange program, months after an indictment was unsealed against a former state legislator who traveled to Europe on state money and was later charged with traveling to Prague with the intent to have sex with a minor. (Mike McClary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)
In a statement, the ethics panel said the association returned the money on its own, without a say from the department, the commission or anyone else. The Legislature approved funding for the program in the department’s budget from 2007 to 2017 as a “pass-through grant” to the association, which was the “reimbursement and bookkeeping entity” for the funds, the ethics panel said.
The ethics panel said the association reached an informal resolution of the complaint against it about the program. As part of that resolution, the association agreed to cease any future involvement with the Global Bridges program. The complaint has been closed. State law makes ethics complaints confidential.
It is unclear whether Holmberg’s alleged misconduct occurred during a Global Bridges trip. The association’s travel records show he took trips in 2011, 2018 and 2019 To Praguea city named in the indictment, and other cities in Europe. Holmberg’s receipt for departure to Prague and other cities is dated June 24, 2011, and is also mentioned in the indictment.
Jon Martinson, the association’s former executive director, said Holmberg “cast a big shadow” on state relations through his association with Global Bridges.
“The trips would have continued and (the association) would not have returned the money and none of this would have been noticed if Ray Holmberg had not done what he is accused of doing in Prague,” said Martinson, who added that he is still the director of the Global Bridges program. He said the association did not consult him about returning the money.
Martinson said nine people, including seven lawmakers, went on the last Global Bridges trip to North Dakota in July 2023. The trip was held in nearby cities such as Berlin and Potsdam. He emphasized the importance of the program to bring together educators and legislators with top experts in education, business and politics.
Democratic state Sen. Tim Matherne, who worked with Holmberg for more than 35 years, said he thinks the program’s status has “become so complicated with so many people looking at the matter.”
“This is really not just about Senator Holmberg. There are other issues that may come up as people inquire further, and I think they would like to get out of this kind of scrutiny and difficulty pretty quickly,” said Matherne, who commended the ethics commission for the process it took “to at least take a closer look at some of these things.”
Holmberg, 80, served in the North Dakota Senate from 1976 to 2022. In early 2022, he announced his intention not to run for re-election, but resigned just weeks later after the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead reported that he had exchanged dozens of text messages with a man in prison for possessing images of child sexual abuse.
Holmberg was one of the most powerful members of the Legislature, chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee for many years. He also chaired Legislative Management, which handles the Legislature’s business between biennial sessions. The latter role allowed him to approve his own travel.
Click here to get the Fox News app
Records obtained by the AP show Holmberg took dozens of trips throughout the U.S. and other countries since 1999. His trips included cities in more than 30 states, as well as Canada, Puerto Rico and Norway.
Holmberg is also charged with receiving and attempting to receive child sexual abuse material. His trial is scheduled for September in Fargo.
