Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann says a dramatic change he’s seen in schools, particularly the last decade, is the level of support OUTSIDE the classroom. Northfield High School Principal Joel Leer and ALC Director Darryl Kehler presented their continued improvement plans for the 2018/19 school year to the Board Monday night. Hillmann said the end goal for both schools is graduation but they come at it differently. For the Area Learning Center, attendance is the biggest hurdle. Hillmann said they do a lot of unique things to get kids to school. It’s not that
they don’t want to be there. Some students have other factors outside of school that affect their ability to attend. The ALC focuses on community and making sure students feel safe. Hillmann added that their goal is to have 100{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} of the students graduate with a life plan. They keep records of those plans, using the data to help guide them. With resources and partnerships such as Healthy Community Initiative, Northfield Promise, faith-based organizations and more, Northfield is uniquely setup to set our children up for success.
“Only 5{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} of the audits are this clean” says Auditor for NH&C
Northfield Hospital and Clinics had a clean audit. Mayor Pownell said, “we have a well run City Hospital”. Clifton, Allen, Larson Auditor, Rob Schiele presented to Council this week telling them the Finance Department has a long reputation for taking pride on their accuracy. He added that only about 5{b5761be34e80a16b6d0e4dabc1869c131a263f96a745c82bebdd3b8a4330bfa9} of the audits they perform have that kind of cleanliness. NH&C has 220 days cash on hand, which translates to $60 million. Schiele said “cash reserves is one of the most critical components” they look at and NH&C does it well. You can view the entire Council meeting on the City’s website.
CAC turns 50
Northfield’s Community Action Center turns 50. An anniversary celebration is slated for Thursday, August 23rd emphasizing the power of community and storytelling. Boyd Huppert of KARE 11 and Land of 10,000 Stories will serve as emcee. Proceeds from the celebration will support housing needs in the Northfield community. More information and ticket purchasing is available at communityactioncenter.org/anniversary. The full press release is on kymn.net.
St. Olaf Prof and team on AGT
When the Minnesota group “Hamster Wheel” got a call from NBC’s “America’s Got Talent,” they thought it was a joke. On Tuesday night, the group, made up of St. Olaf’s Physics professor Jason Engbrecht, and his former students, 2011 graduate Bryce Danielson and 2013 graduate Christian Weeks got the nod for their Rube Goldberg machine. Talent scouts from the show tracked them down after they saw machines they made for Target and 3m advertising projects. It took 300 hours to build the machine for AGT. It was triggered by a cell phone call from Simon Cowell to host Tyra Banks. Whether there will be more Rube Goldberg machines coming from the trio is up for speculation.
