Northfield Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann has been named the 2023 Minnesota Superintendent of the Year by the 
Northfield Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann
A statement issued by the MASA said Hillmann was selected by a panel of representatives from a variety of Minnesota education organizations. Nominees are evaluated on how each candidate demonstrates leadership for learning, communication skills, professionalism, and community involvement.
The statement cited Hillmann’s communication skills in a variety of roles, his commitment to closing achievement gaps, his highly successful commitments to reading proficiency and early childhood education, and his work with traditionally marginalized segments of the community as key reasons for his selection.
Specifically, he was praised for the “Readiness for Kindergarten” rate shown by the students enrolled in the Early Ventures childcare and Hand in Hand preschool programs. In 2021, the statement said, those rates were 100% and 95% respectively. Third grade students, it said improved their proficiency in reading overall from 59.9% in 2017 to 68.3% in 2019. And despite the Covid related regression, the Northfield School District has been singled out as one of 54 Bright Spot Communities for its commitment to grade-level reading proficiency. The statement praised Hillmann for his commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well, noting his selection as the City of Northfield’s 2022 Human Rights Award recipient.
After serving as the Director of Administrative Services and Director of Human Resources and Technology for the Northfield School District, Hillmann was named Superintendent in 2016. He said coming to Northfield from a very good position in Belle Plaine is a decision he and his family have never regretted.
“I had a great job in my previous district, but when there was an opportunity to join the district office here in Northfield as the Director of Human Resources and then Technology as well, it was a no-brainer for us. And it wasn’t about the job, which turned out really well of course, but it was really for our kids. The move here was for our children, and I am very grateful to this community for what they do.”
Reminded of the reasons he has been given this honor, Hillmann was deferential, saying those things are just the components of his job as he sees it, and are the foundation of the district’s vision statement.
“We will prepare every student for lifelong success. Now, that doesn’t mean some students, you know, we’re going to prepare those students, but not that group of students. When we say it, we mean every student. And we want to prepare every student for lifelong success so that they have a genuinely fair chance to achieve whatever their version of the American dream is. And I mean that. I mean, it sounds a little dorky. But I really mean that with all of my heart.”
As the Minnesota honoree, Dr. Hillmann is a candidate among other state recipients for National Superintendent of the Year, which will be announced during the American Association of School Administrators National Conference on Education this February in San Antonio, Texas.
City seeks solutions to meeting climate goals
During their meeting on Tuesday night, the Northfield City Council heard a presentation by Brendan Dillon of Nokomis Energy, 
assessing some of the goals for the city’s Climate Action Plan, and what will need to happen in order to reach them.
Specifically, the CAP calls for Northfield to use only carbon free electricity by 2030, and for 10% of the electricity to come from local sources, and for the city to be completely carbon free by 2040.
The Clean Energy Transition Plan put together by Nokomis lays out several options of how to achieve those goals and points out the many things that need to happen along the way. The two major constraints Northfield faces are, according to Dillon, the amount of carbon free electricity Xcel Energy plans to deliver to Northfield by 2030, and the state of the city’s electrical grid.
The research conducted by Nokomis shows that only 44% of the electricity coming from Xcel by 2030 will be carbon free. In order to get to 100%, Dillon said, community energy parks consisting of solar arrays will have to be constructed and phased in over the next 7 years.
The electrical grid will require substantial upgrades, he said, and Nokomis has already engaged with Xcel Energy about a pilot project that would put Northfield at the forefront of finding a clean energy solution within the state of Minnesota.
City administrator Ben Martig said the city is going to need quite a bit of cooperation from Xcel Energy, but that is not the only entity that will have to help.
“We cannot do it alone. We’ll really need [Xcel Energy’s] participation to make any kind of improvement to that. And we’ll also need help from the State of Minnesota to achieve these goals as well because the legislature is responsible for spending some of their dollars that they have [from the taxes Xcel Energy pays] for sustainability. [The legislature] can help with regulation and putting these things into place.”
Martig also said community support will be vital to the success of the plan.
The plan calls for a three-phase approach to the issue. Assistant to the City Administrator, Risi Karim, who is also the staff liaison to the Environmental Quality Commission, said the plan will now go back to the EQC for further development and refinement. She estimates it will be back before the council sometime late next year or in early 2024.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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