Northfield Schools are releasing students 2 hours early today due to deteriorating weather conditions. All afternoon activities have been cancelled. Kindergarten information night at Sibley and Bridgewater have also been cancelled, they will be rescheduled at a later date. There is more information on the School District’s website. Faribault Schools and Medford schools are closing at 1pm. Stay tuned to KYMN for more information about tomorrow.
Gaya starts serving jail time
A Northfield man will spend 120 days in jail for 3rd degree criminal sexual conduct with a child. 27 year old Alexander Christian Gaya, met a 14 year old boy through an app called Grindr. The victim’s mother discovered text messages and posed as her son. Rice County
Deputies were called in late August when the mother told them she believed her son had been sexually assaulted. Gaya had been charged with 9 felonies. In late December, he pled guilty to the 3rd degree charge and 1 count of electronic solicitation of a minor. He was also sentenced last week to 7 years of supervised probation, he must register as a predatory Offender, enter a sex offender program upon release from the Rice Co. jail and is not allowed access to the internet without permission from his probation officer.
Draheim wants surplus for mental health
The State has a surplus of just over $300 million. District 20 Sen. Draheim discussed the opioid crisis and said one bill includes a 1 cent tax per pill. He said, “a lot of people on my side of the aisle are against raising taxes but we have to figure out how to fund, to me, not only chemical addiction but mental health”. The tax would be charged to the distributor and manufacturer. The bill has some traction. Draheim also believes some of that surplus money should go to State employee pensions, “these people are planning on retiring. In my opinion they’ve earned that retirement, they’re expecting it, you know, we need to make sure that they get what they have coming”. We’ll hear more from Draheim each Thursday through the legislative session. Although this week he’ll be on at 7:20 Friday morning.
Contingency $ to address class sizes
Expanding the contingency fund is an aim for Northfield Schools Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann. He said it’s a budget that the Administrators get to use to address specific issues of class size throughout the District. The average class size at the high school is 27.5 students. Hillmann says that sounds great except that, for the 160 classes offered, 75 of those are taught just once a day, meaning that there’s rarely an “average”. He said there could be 15 students in Automotive or language classes, while there may be 38 students in Mathematics. By adding two full FTE to the contingency fund that will address the class size concerns. This fund is redistributed throughout the district each year.
NHS hosting WWI movie “Sweet Land”
The Northfield Historical Society will be hosting a free family movie event as part of its commemoration of World War I. “Sweet Land” will be shown on Sunday afternoon at 1:15 at Viking Theater on the St. Olaf Campus. The movie depicts the attitude that many people across the US shared after WWI in regard to certain types of immigrants. The film was shot mostly in southwestern Minnesota and is seen through the lens of a love story unfolding in a small farming community. There is no fee to attend the event, but a free-will donation will be accepted. Theater doors open at 1 pm.
