The Northfield School Board meeting held last night was the first time the general public had had opportunity to speak out and react to the
Northfield School District’s proposed budget reductions that were first published on Thursday.
The reactions revealed two areas of note that are inspiring especially passionate responses.
The recommendations call for the reduction of English Learner educators from what is essentially 11.4 full time teachers to 8. Many students, former students and beneficiaries of the English Learner program spoke at the meeting, explaining how important the program had been to them and their families. The appeals were at times extremely emotional and showed how much the students and educators in the program care about its success.
The other significant objection from the public came in reaction to the recommendation to cancel the Agricultural Education partnership with Randolph High School. The program works very closely with Future Farmers of America and has seen great success in the students it has produced.
The speakers found sympathy on the school board. Regarding the English Learner program, Hope Langston, the district’s Director of Instructional Services was questioned about the need for, and even the wisdom of, downsizing a program that has produced a graduation rate of 71%, one of the highest in the state.
Likewise, board members Jeff Quinnell, Noel Stratmoen and Julie Pritchard each spoke about the success of the Agriculture program, and reminded everyone listening that Northfield is, at its heart, and agricultural community.
The district will hold a public forum on Tuesday, May 3, at the Northfield Middle School, to allow for further public reaction, comment and feedback.
Draheim frustrated with Governor’s proposals
State Senator Rich Draheim did not attend the Governor Walz’s State of the State Address on Sunday night, but he was paying attention to what the governor had to say. He expressed frustration with many of the main points in the speech, and said his party has solutions for the issues that are troubling the state.
Regarding the public safety section of the speech, the Senator said the proposals the governor is talking about are things Republicans tried to pass years ago, before the death of George Floyd.
“It’s ironic,” he said. “Looking at stuff we worked on way before everything that has transpired in the last two years. The support for public safety, and the things that we have tried to do that would have helped us through the last two years, it’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get that over the finish line a couple years ago.”
He said the same situation exists with the governor’s proposal to bring medical health professionals in from out of state. He feels the stress that hospitals are feeling right now with regards to staffing could have been alleviated by the Nurse Licensure Compact, which has been joined by at least 39 states and U.S. territories, but Minnesota has yet to become a part of.
The Senator said the lack of progress on the repayment of the Unemployment Trust Frund is yet another source of frustration to him. Because of unemployment payments made during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic, the state is now $1 billion in debt to the federal government. Servicing that debt is costing the state $50,000 a day. He said the holdup is in the House of Representatives, because the Senate and the Governor seem to be on the same page.
“We took the Governor’s proposal and ran with it. We got overwhelming bi-partisan support from the Senate and passed it. Because we knew months ago that it would cost $50,000 a day in interest to the federal government. It’s money we owe. It’s a credit card bill that we have. With a surplus, we should pay our debt off first.”
Draheim said the speech frustrated him, because looking back on legislative goals that could have been accomplished years ago but were stopped and blocked instead, would have been helpful today.
“It’s a shame,” he said, “because so many of the issues we work on, should not be partisan issues.”
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with State Senator Rich Draheim can be heard here
Mental Health Social Workers coming to Rice County
Rice County is in the process of creating a program that will bring in mental health social workers to work with law enforcement departments
in the county and the county’s municipalities. It’s a program that enjoys the full support of Northfield Police Chief Mark Elliott.
Elliott said every law enforcement officer in the state goes through Critical Incident Training (CIT), which is a forty-hour course that teaches police officers how to deal with a person in crisis. Northfield Police Officers can be a good bridge, he said, to getting someone the help they need. But often times, the person in question doesn’t need the kind of intensive help that they would get by going to a hospital. The mental health social workers, then, can work in a stabilizing capacity to defuse a situation, and then work to follow up with those people, to help them get the kind of help that they do need.
Police aren’t always the right people to respond to a mental health call, and in fact sometimes their presence can exacerbate a situation. Elliott said that while there will be plenty of calls where his officers will be needed because of the instability and volatile nature of a call, the program will be working to get to the point where the social workers can respond to certain calls themselves. The program can make the response to certain calls more efficient and will take some responsibilities off a patrol officer’s plate.
The funding for the program has been folded into the Rice County budget, and reflects the choices being made by several other counties around the country, including very close to home.
“A lot of counties just make the determination that ‘This is important.’ part of our city is in Dakota County, and this is something that they have had in place and had people working in those spots for years. But they are really in need of expanding that program, and they’re looking at almost doubling it in size.”
There is currently a mental health crisis response team to service the Northfield area for these exact kinds of issues, but the team is based in Mankato. This program will drastically reduce response times, which could be critical to helping the situation.
Elliott said a supervisor has been put in place for the program, and the county is currently hiring social workers. He hopes to have someone designated to working with the Northfield Police Department by June.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield Chief of Police Mark Elliott can be heard here
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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