School District LETRS Program
The Northfield school district has joined a growing number of districts around the 
country that have adopted the LETRS method of teaching elementary students reading and spelling. “If a student is secure in their reading skills at the end of third grade, what research tells us is that they have a solid pathway to success from there on” says Superintendent Dr. Matt Hillmann. LETRS is an acronym for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling. It is a program developed by a company called Lexia that empowers teachers to understand the what, why, and how of scientifically based reading instruction. Alisha Clarey is the district’s lead on the program “It all begins with oral language and they build on that oral language and once we understand the structure of how a child learns to read, it builds on itself so the LETRS program lets us start strong for them.” Covid threw a wrench into the education system. Now that the students have been learning on campus for the better part of two years, the results are beginning to show: “In Grade 3 at the beginning of the year, of our third graders, 28.4% of them were predicted to meet or exceed. This is the real issue from pandemic. In the winter just a few weeks ago, almost 60% of those students are predicted to meet or exceed.” The district is looking for those numbers to climb the last 4 months of the school year. If you would like to learn more, you can check out our website KYMN.net. Our interview with Hillmann and Clarey is archived on the page.
Not Mobile, Part 2
Coming up this weekend on KYMN will be parts 1 and 2 of the 3-part series “Not 
Mobile” by journalist Cait Kelley. Kelley has been following the saga of the sale of Viking Terrace and struggles the residents have had with a new set of rules laid out by the new ownership group, Lakeshore Properties. KYMN originally broadcast part 1 last fall, and Kelley gives us a preview of part 2: “I tried to focus on some of the stories within the City of Northfield outside of Viking Terrace, so I interviewed nonprofit leaders, city officials, lawyers. activists, people who are involved in the church community, people at Emmaus, people who have already been primed to be involved in their community to help Northfielders in need.” While residents, community activists, media reports and others have brought the story to light, the issues that have been brought forward are still not resolved: “It doesn’t mean that Viking Terrace is out of the woods. Like I said, this lot rent issue is really serious and it’s not resolved.” This story will continue and so will Kelley’s reporting. She says part 3 in the series is already in the works. “In that one I’m going be be digging into some of the individual resident stories I’ve heard at the other parks in Minnesota. For example, there’s one woman who actually came down to Viking Terrace and spoke with our Assistant Attorney General Katherine Kelly at the event there. She was part of the effort to create a resident association in the Monticello park.” You can listen to our full interview on our website, kymnradio.net. The stories themselves will air this weekend. Part One is scheduled for 11:00 Saturday morning, and Part Two Sunday at 11:00am.
In related news, Rice County Commissioners are mulling an ordinance that would require mobile-home communities to give notice if the property is going up for sale and give resident associations the first opportunity to buy the community. Rice County would be the first to enact such requirements, prompting concern from some commissioners over whether it would be legal. Rice County Director of Housing Joy Watson assured that any ordinance proposal would be subject to legal review prior to any submission to the board.
