By Rich Larson, News Director
Last night the Northfield City Council along with key members of the Northfield City staff convened for the second o
f their Strategic Planning Retreat sessions.
Led by planning consultant Craig Rapp, the group put the structure together for what will form the city’s next strategic plan that will be used through 2023.
Last week the group identified a dozen separate challenges facing the city in the coming years, and from those they culled a list of six priorities: Economic Vitality, Housing Availability, Quality Facilities, (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion), Service Excellence and Climate Action, all of which are to be reflected in the Strategic Plan.
Last night’s meeting was about focusing on how the priorities can be turned into city initiatives. To that end the collective broke into three small groups, each focusing on two of the priorities, and were then asked to present desired outcomes from working on each category.
After a thoughtful conversation where each group presented ideas that were then molded and recast by the group as a whole, the members of the City Council were each asked for their thoughts on how the city should proceed. Councilor Clarice Grabau said one of the important things to remember in this exercise is that each priority and each action will have affects everywhere else.
“Sometimes it’s difficult with this type of graphic organizer for us to think about how all six of these priorities are in relationship with one another, and they don’t exist in silos. These are all interconnected, and they don’t exist independent of one another. When you push on one, it’s going to have an effect on the others.”
Mr. Rapp will now take the many ideas from these two sessions and present a rough draft of the new strategic plan at a city council meeting in April.
Lippert discusses DFL Summer Learning Plan
Governor Tim Walz and House Democrats have made summer school funding a priority in the first half of this year’s legislative session. Educators and school district leaders across the state are saying that this summer is a crucial one for many students who may have fallen behind in the last school year due to distance learning.
The Governor has proposed $150 million dollars for summer learning programs, and last week the House passed a $170 million dollar funding plan. Representative Todd Lippert said that the difference between the house bill and the Governor’s proposal is extra funding for early learning.
“Early learning, helping students get prepared for Kindergarten if they didn’t have access to some of those programs before. Providing Mental health supports. And providing school districts who may have had decreased enrollments with the extra support they need to make sure they are strong in the summer and are in good shape going into the fall.”
Lippert echoed the Governor’s sentiments that passing a funding bill for Summer School as soon as possible is very important, as school districts need to know how much money they will have for various summer programs. Governor Walz has asked the Senate to pass the bill by April 15th.
Republicans in the legislature however have been critical of both the Governor’s plan and the House bill, saying that it does more for urban students than it does for students in the rural districts. Many Republicans have also said that the federal money received from the various Covid relief packages should be used to fund summer learning. Lippert pointed out that the House bill does have a contingency clause stipulating that if those federal funds are eligible for use to fund summer school, they should be used in lieu of state funds.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Representative Todd Lippert can be heard here
Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival to be performed outdoors in May
And Northfield High School announced yesterday that Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival, the schools very popular every-other
year musical production, will be presented in May on an outdoor stage on the High School grounds.
“The kids are really excited,” said director Ray Coudret. “We haven’t been able to do anything like this for a long, long time.”
Coudret said the show will feature performers in “pods” of seven, who are rehearsing together rather than have full cast rehearsals. The pods, he said, allow for more controlled distancing and will limit the problems should someone contract the Covid-19 virus.
Generally, Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival runs over two weekends, but due to the pandemic and the unreliable nature of staging an outdoor production, this year the run has been shortened to three days on May 14, 15 and 16. The stage will be set up in the High School Auditorium parking lot. Coudret said that the production has space in the schedule in case a performance is rained out.
He said the unifying theme for the show this year is positivity in people coming back together.
“This is going to be a celebration of doing something communal,” he said.
Tickets for Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival will go on sale at 4 pm on Friday, April 16 at the high school auditorium entrance.
