By Rich Larson, News Director
On Monday night, the Northfield Public School Board voted to rename Sibley Elementary School to Spring Creek Elementary School. 
With the reputations of many historical figures suffering through the long lens of history, last fall the board adopted a policy prohibiting the district from naming buildings after people. The shift in policy therefore required name changes to Sibley and the former Longfellow school, and shortly thereafter the school district began taking public suggestions for a new name. Dr. Hillmann said that they received 36 unique suggestions for new names which were paired down to three and presented to the board.
In the end, Dr. Hillmann said, it was a former member of the school board who made the best case for Spring Creek.
“Former board member Dr. Rob hardy wrote a really eloquent piece about how Spring Creek really flows throughout the attendance area of the current Sibley Elementary, and how it really brings all of the folks in that area together. And so, I think that was a really important piece that the board heard. Spring Creek really does encompass and gets into all the nooks and crannies of that attendance area.”
Hillmann said that students working with the high school’s SCOPE Program will create a plaque to be placed at the school honoring the Wahpekute people and the history of the building in explaining the name change.
Two weeks ago, the board voted to rename Longfellow the District Office and Area Learning Center. The new name change will become official on July 1.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Dr. Matt Hillmann can be heard here
Vaccinations on the rise
The Covid-19 Vaccination program continues to pick up momentum across the country. Last week President Biden confirmed that the United States will have enough vaccine for 300 Million people by the end of July. In Minnesota, more than 94,000 doses have been administered since January 21, and yesterday Governor Tim Walz announced the creation of a new, large scale, permanent vaccination site at the Mall of America.
Here in Northfield, public schools superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann said that, in partnership with Northfield Hospital, virtually the entire staff of the Northfield School District has been vaccinated, including substitute teachers, coaches who are not employed as teachers and anyone else who works directly with students.
State Senator Rich Draheim said that Minnesota’s initial vaccine rollout got off to a rocky start, but things have improved.
“I know that the winter storm across the country really hampered the distribution of more vaccines, so we’ll have a slight hiccup for that. And they said last week we had more than a million doses handed out. And we have, what, 5.6, 5.7 million people in Minnesota? So, I think we’re headed there. To me, I think herd immunity has already kicked in. But we’ll continue to push vaccines.”
Meanwhile another sign of improvement is the state’s establishment of the Vaccine Connector. Dr. Hillmann said that will be a particularly useful tool as Minnesotans look for vaccination opportunities.
“Last Thursday the State of Minnesota launched something called the Vaccine Connector. This is for anybody in the state show can register that they are interested in being vaccinated against Covid-19. And then when you start to come up in the timeline when you would be eligible, they will reach out and contact you and then direct you to one of the vaccination centers.”
We have pinned a link to the Vaccine Connector website at the top of our 95.1 The One Facebook page, and will publish another link to the website on kymnradio.net today at noon.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here.
Chamber City tout new PPP changes
Finally, the City of Northfield and the Northfield Chamber of Commerce are encouraging all small business owners to take quick action to apply for a
newly developed component of the Paycheck Protection Program.
A statement posted to the city’s website, and an email distributed by the Chamber yesterday said that the Small Business Administration will make it easier for businesses with fewer than 20 employees and sole proprietors to obtain PPP loans during a window of time from Wednesday, February 24 through Wednesday, March 10. President Biden has also announced additional program changes to make access to PPP loans more equitable.
The changes in the program will give lenders and community partners more time to work with the smallest businesses to submit their applications, while also ensuring that larger PPP-eligible businesses will still have plenty of time to apply for and receive support before the program expires.
The Paycheck Protection Program was established by the federal government last year to help businesses continue paying their workers throughout the global Coronavirus pandemic.
For more information about the PPP Loan program in English, click here.
Para obtener más información sobre el programa de préstamos PPP en español, haga clic aquí.
