MICHAEL RINGSTAD
My name is Michael 'Mike' Ringstad and I’m running as a candidate for School Board for the Sartell-St. Stephen School District.
I was born and raised in East Grand Forks, MN, lived in Sauk Rapids for a few years and eventually moved to the St. Stephen area in 2006.
RESPONSIBLE. HONEST. TRUSTWORTHY.
FAMILY
My wife, Roberta, and I have two elementary school-aged daughters and - against my better judgement - three cats. Things we enjoy as a family are, spending time outdoors, tending to our orchard-in-progress and pollinator habitat, and traveling. We chose to live in the Sartell-St. Stephen area specifically for the school district and our oldest daughter completed Kindergarten through second grade as a Sabre.
WORK
I completed the Electrical Lineworker Program at the Northwest Technical College in Wadena, MN in 2001 and was indentured into the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union (IBEW) Missouri Valley Lineman Apprentice Program in 2003. I worked as an Electrical Lineman for Xcel Energy from 2006 until 2016. In August of 2016 I was appointed by the IBEW Local 160 as a Business Representative – which is my current position.
LEADERSHIP
After spending 15+ years working in the field, I am passionate about promoting the skilled labor trades – especially to our youth. I value the opportunity that I have been given to represent thousands of IBEW Local 160 members. I have served on the IBEW Local 160 Executive Board, as a union Stewart, and as President of the IBEW Local 160 Building Corp, and am curruntly on the Board of Trustees for the Missouri Valley Line Constructors Apprenticehip and Training Program.
My dad served on the East Grand Forks Fire Department and spent decades as the Fire Chief. I admired that he chose a profession to help serve and protect our community and made an oath to do the same by serving on the St. Stephen Fire & Rescue for nearly 10 years. A fulfilling volunteer role that I hope to return to some day.
“Every person can make a difference, and every person should try.”
– John F. Kennedy
MY MOTIVATION
When our youngest daughter was due for her Kindergarten Readiness screening, there was a masking policy in place. We were baffled when our bright and eager child wouldn’t answer any of the questions being asked of her during that screening. It was so bizarre. The instructor recognized that our little girl was struggling to understand the questions, so she offered to remove her mask (thinking it might help our child). As soon as our daughter was able to hear - and see - the instructor, she passed the screening with flying purple squares.
Knowing what we knew after the screening - and learning how masks impaired the ability for many youngsters to comprehend the spoken word - we became very concerned about why it seemed that the school board was delaying announcing their back-to-school plan. As surrounding districts rolled out their back-to-school plans (the overwhelming majority, leaving masking optional) we waited…and waited…and waited for the school board to decide. Finally, in mid-August the board voted, and approved to mask students and staff for the 21-22 school year, long after the state mandate was dropped.
With just two weeks before the start of school, my wife and I made the extremely difficult decision to pull our children out of Sartell-St. Stephen schools - the district that we had moved here for. We refused to willingly send our daughter to Kindergarten knowing she would struggle to learn from a masked teacher.
Learning more about how other districts managed to operate safely from the fall of 2019 through 2022, seemingly without as significant of disruptions as Sartell-St. Stephen left me very curious about the true motives of the extreme measures that were taken by the Sartell-St. Stephen school district.