On Monday night during his second inaugural address, Governor Tim Walz promised a world class education for every student in Minnesota.
Northfield Superintendent of Public Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann intends to hold the Governor, and the members of the Minnesota State Legislature, to that promise.
Hillmann is currently the President of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators and said he has been deeply involved in crafting the organization’s lobbying platform. Eyeing what could be an $18 Billion budget surplus, and with DFL majorities in both the State Senate and the House of Representatives, he said he believes the state has a great opportunity make what he called “structural fixes” in how the State of Minnesota funds education.
Hillmann has spoken many times about state education funding, characterizing the situation as “chronic underfunding” over the past thirty years. One of his chief complaints has been the failure of the state’s basic formula to keep up with inflation.
“If we were to adjust the per pupil basic formula, the amount of money that each school district gets for each student directly from the state, which is currently over a little more than $6700 or so per student, you’d have to increase it by $1600 per student to have the same purchasing power that it did back. In 1990-91.”
Dr. Hillmann said the plan is to lobby the legislature for a 5% increase to the basic formula over each of the next two years, and to also tie an inflation index to the basic formula, which would raise funding as inflation goes up in order to assure that the state does not fall behind.
Another issue for which Dr. Hillmann said his organization will advocate will be full-on funding of the Special Education Cross Subsidy. The State of Minnesota requires every school district to offer special education programs for students with disabilities, something Hillmann has called a “moral obligation” many times. The state mandate, however, has never been fully addressed in education funding, and Hillmann said the Northfield School District pays about $5 million every year from its general fund for these programs. He said if the state would simply meet its own mandate, the benefits to the taxpayer would be tangible.
“If that one piece – the special education cross subsidy – was filled, if the legislature stepped in and did that, it would nearly eliminate the need in many districts for their operating levy.”
Proper school funding has been an issue Hillmann has fought for throughout his tenure as Northfield’s Superintendent of Schools, and that fight will be especially keen over the next few months. He said he expects to be at the State Capitol a few times this winter and will be in touch with legislators by all available means throughout the session.
New Public Safety Center slightly ahead of schedule
Construction on the new Rice County Public Safety Center is ahead of schedule according to Rice County Sheriff Jesse Thomas. 
Ground was broken on the new facility last August which will house both the Rice County Sheriff’s Department and the Rice County jail and has progressed quicker than anticipated.
Thomas said one more floor must be poured on the footings, and then it will be ready for the walls to be erected. Those walls are currently being manufactured by Wells Concrete and are due to be delivered at the end of the month. The installation process will take up most of the month of February, and Thomas said construction on the roof should then begin in March.
Once complete, the new facility will have several new options and features not available in the current jail, which is nearly fifty years old. Thomas said a committee has selected the new furnishings for the Safety Cente, and he has a mockup of a new cubicle set up for employees of the Sheriff’s Department to have a look and offer feedback.
Thomas has added three more positions to the Corrections Department in anticipation of the new facility, and even though it is still 18 months away, his staff is planning for the move, which will be a meticulous process. For example, he said, the contents of the department’s evidence room will have to be closely monitored.
“So, when we move all of our evidence from our current location has to be logged out of that location and then transported and we have to have multiple staff do that and then log back into the new facility. We’ll actually have to have two facilities operating at the same time for probably a couple of months to make sure we get the good transition through there and document everything.”
Meanwhile, no decision has been made as of yet about what to do with the current jail facility once it is empty.
County Commissioner Galen Malecha said it is possible that the building could become the new home of the shared Rice County/Steele County Dispatch Center.
“There’s been some talk of the dispatch center possibly relocating to Rice County. We need some expansion space at Steele County, where the dispatch center is currently located. And that building is owned by Steele County and the City of Owatonna, so that’s a process.”
Malecha also said the building could also be used by the County Corrections Department.
The new Public Safety Center is currently scheduled to open in late summer or early fall of 2024.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Rice County Sheriff Jesse Thomas can be heard here
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Rice County Commissioner Galen Malecha can be heard here
Emergency training to be held Saturday at the Northfield Middle School
And on Tuesday night during the Northfield City Council meeting, City Administrator Ben Martig praised the Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service and
the Northfield Police Department for being good collaborative entities. A good example of what Martig was talking about will happen on Saturday when the Northfield Police Department hosts a multi-agency crisis event training at the Northfield Middle School.
The training will run from 8 am—2:30 pm and will be attended by the joint public safety services (local EMT, fire, and law enforcement agencies) to align responses to a crisis event, including a potential active shooter. The Northfield Area School District and the Northfield Police Department want residents to be aware of the training, so they are not alarmed by such a large number of first responders at the middle school on Saturday.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann thanked the Northfield Police Department for hosting what has become necessary and very important training.
“We are grateful to the Northfield Police Department,” he said, “for their proactive approach to training for crisis events we all pray never happens.”
The training is not open to the public.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
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