Local Latino community sees support still some fear
Roughly 75{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} of the adult Latino community are reportedly undocumented. Since the election, they and their families, children born here, have increased fear and anxiety. Father Denny of St. Dominic’s Catholic Church invited those in the faith community to a meeting Sunday evening. He estimated about 500 residents gathered to listen to concerns and show support. He said since the election, “it was as though the outcome of things gave people who were carrying some kind of a prejudicial attitude toward Hispanics and others, kind of gave them almost like a license to speak their mind more openly on that”. Northfield Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann was at the meeting. He said Northfield Schools do not tolerate discrimination, however, he said if there’s an incident, it needs to be reported right away to a teacher, to an administrator or any adult. They have processes in place to handle those
situations. He added, “and I think right now, all of us need to look at ourselves, the adults in our community and say, are we Active bystanders in terms of making sure that we stand up for our friends and neighbors when we see an injustice or discrimination occurring or do we just put our head down and say, I’ll let someone else help with that”. Several city officials were involved in that meeting including Administrator Ben Martig, our Human Rights Commission also got together. He said one of the things that came out of that was the suggestion that the City of Northfield Council/Community leaders make a statement. The Council passed a resolution (6 to 1) “affirming the City of Northfield’s commitment to be a safe, inclusive and welcoming community for all”. Martig said it’s really a statement resolution, there’s nothing in it from a policy standpoint. Martig added the resolution also points out the role our police department, “while we do work with the United States Dept. of Homeland Security and other federal agencies, we don’t operate our Police Dept. for the purpose of enforcing federal immigration laws or any federal laws for that matter. We just deal with local issues”. During the Council meeting, several members of the Latino community spoke. Some passionately about what it meant for them that the City would support them in this way, others about the fear and angst they feel. Councilor Ludescher said the resolution has no weight to it and in fact could lead to more divisiveness. He was more in favor of becoming a sanctuary city, which is an ordinance that will come back to Council. KYMN will have much more on this issue as we invite members of the KYMN radio show “El Super Barrio Latino” and others to come in and discuss issues on the Morning Show. Council packet info with Resolution attached: 2016_11_15-city-council-supplemental-agenda-background-memo-for-november-15-2016-no-1-final
Full time substitutes?
The Northfield School board discussed a substitute teacher proposal this week. Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said with unemployment low, their substitute pool is slim making it difficult to find a fill-in, particularly on mornings where someone calls in sick. One thing other districts have done is hire full-time substitutes. Human Resources proposed they hire 2 people for, what they call, in-house substitutes. Hillmann added that they’re looking for people with, what’s called a “short call sub license”. He said, “in Minnesota there’s regular teaching licenses and then they also have another, really it’s an endorsement for people who have a 4 year degree and a few other qualifications they’re able to apply for permission to teach as what we call Short Call substitute teacher”. They know that on any given day they will likely have 2 teachers gone. This will come back to the Board at their November 28th meeting.
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