The Northfield School Board held a work session on Monday night, where they began to evaluate the recommendations that have been made
on what to do with the Northfield High School building.
Built in 1966 and renovated in 1993 and again in 1997, the building, while seen as basically sound, is lacking in several areas. This past spring the school district convened a task force of some thirty people to look at the issues, prioritize them, and make recommendations to the board.
Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Matt Hillmann said the task force offered a tiered recommendation to the board. The first tear is in the infrastructure of the school. The high school is famously uneven in temperatures from wing to wing, and sometimes even classroom to classroom. The original section of the school is not very well insulated, and the HVAC system can struggle to keep things comfortable from one part of the school to another. Fixing that situation is the report’s first priority.
The second tier involves, as Hillmann put it, enhancing the schools educational adequacy. Areas like the science labs are in need of an upgrade, as is the V Wing of the building that houses the technology and engineering department. The school also needs to become more adaptable flexible in order to create larger, more communal learning spaces. Hillmann said these spaces are becoming very popular and could well be the kind of working environment that students will have in the future.
The third tier, Hillmann said, involves additions to the building to better accommodate athletics, and court sports in particular, and the music department as well.
All told, he said, following through on every recommendation would cost $87 million dollars. Any money to fund the renovations would have to come from voter approved bonding, which would mean putting a referendum on the November ballot.
Hillmann said the board, during their discussions last night was leaning toward having the infrastructure dealt with at a cost of $40 million dollars. He said there are some who would like to look into building a brand-new building, but the board is shying away from that option.
“While we know that many people consider the building to be inconvenient in a number of ways. It’s obviously a very large facility. We understand that some people would prefer to look forward and say, ‘Let’s just start over.’ But the board really was clear that we understand the economic situation that we’re talking about over the next couple of years, and what would be the most reasonable way to get the best facility for our kids and to be good stewards and make sure the building is operating efficiently.”
No decisions were made on Monday night. The board’s next meeting is set for July 11th.
Viking Terrace residents seek a ‘unified voice’
Residents of Viking Terrace met last night and began the process of forming a Homeowner’s Association. With 69 of the 93 necessary signatures, the organizers were confidant they would get the remaining 24 over the course of the next couple days.
Since they took ownership of Viking Terrace on April 6th, those who live there say the new management company, Lakeshore Properties, has imposed rule changes that are unnecessary, ill-defined, possibly illegal, and in some cases demeaning.
Northfield City Councilor George Zuccolotto, who is a Viking Terrace resident, said the approach the management company has taken since arriving has been adversarial, aggressive and condescending, and has necessitated the creation of the Homeowner’s Association.
Among the many issues raised by the park residents is the communication with the park manager. Communication with that person has been exceedingly difficult. Posted office hours are not always kept, and residents have reported trying to visit the office only to find an empty office and a locked door.
Compounding the problem is the language barrier. Many of the Viking Terrace residents do not speak English, but there is not an on-site, Spanish speaking Lakeshore employee.
Mar Valdecontos, with Rice County Neighbors United, an advocacy group that has been working the park residents, said the management style is unacceptable, and it is one of the biggest reasons the residents have chosen to organize.
“That’s not the way to build community, in fact it’s just the opposite. They’re just being aggressive and [saying] ‘You’re going to do as I say, and then we’re going to talk about it case by case.’ It doesn’t make any sense. Probably it works in other places, that they intimidate people into compliance, but they came to the wrong community.”
Zuccolotto said the new association will provide leadership that can work with Lakeshore to address the issues and will hopefully lead to better communication.
“The first goal is to have a conglomerate together as a unified voice against the management so we have the complaints filed through us, and then as a unified voice we can say ‘This is wrong.’ And we can stand together.”
Lakeshore Management has declined to make any comment on the situation.
Lippert comments on Supreme Court decision
And Representative Todd Lippert has issued a statement regarding the ruling made by the United States Supreme Court, striking down the
constitutional protection of abortion rights under Roe v. Wade.
“Trusting women with their reproductive health decisions is fundamental to dignity and equality,” the statement read.
On Friday, the Supreme Court issued its ruling on Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s health. Through that ruling, the court, by a vote of 6-3, found that the Constitution does not guarantee a woman’s right to abortion, essentially because when the right to privacy was codified in the Constitution, abortion was not a known activity.
“Due to Doe v. Gomez,” the statement continued, “abortion access is still allowed in Minnesota. However, we are already seeing the extremists of Republican leadership attempt to end reproductive freedom in Minnesota. We cannot let them succeed.”
Lippert, the two term Representative of Minnesota House District 20b, is stepping away from his seat in the state legislature this fall and will instead focus on efforts to better connect the DFL party with rural areas throughout the state.
But as he remains a Representative until the end of his term in December, he said his party is committed to protecting reproductive rights and will act to dismantle what he called “the power of extreme minority rule.”
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director
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