The Northfield City Council met in a work session on Tuesday night, joined by key members of the Northfield city staff to begin the Council’s budgeting process for 2024.
The meeting is an annual event where the head of each department gives a status update regarding what their department has been doing, what it hopes to accomplish in the coming year, and then, of course, make any budget requests that they feel are necessary. The Council has the opportunity to ask questions of those presenting in order for the individual councilors to formulate their ideas on how they believe the city should proceed.
City Administrator Ben Martig acknowledged that, with all the project planning that has been coming to a head this summer, the Council has fallen a bit behind in their budgeting schedule.
“Normally we would start this process with the Council in July. But we’ve had some pretty major projects that have been in the works, including some of these redevelopment projects downtown that the city’s working on or the reviewing of the private ones with like the Archer House. We’re probably about a month behind on the Council review side of things, so we’re accelerating some things a little bit next month.”
Along with the budgeting process comes the establishment of the city’s property tax levy. Martig presented the Council with three separate options for the 2024 levy. One would be a 7.8% increase to the levy, which would include a 4.5% increase to the general fund. The second option is a 10.4% increase which includes the 4.5% general fund increase, and a 36% increase to the Parks/Facilities/Vehicles budget. The third option is a 12.8% increase, which includes a 5.5% increase to the general fund, and a 48.4% increase to the Parks/Facilities/Vehicle budget.
A general, and unofficial, survey of the Council was taken at the end of the meeting, and most members of the council did not seem to be opposed to any of the budget increases.
The initial property tax levy must be set by the end of September. Once the initial number is set, it cannot be raised, although it can come down. The Council will vote on the initial levy amount during their regular meeting on September 19th.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Hillmann says Continuous Improvement Plans are ‘vital’
The Northfield School Board is in its own annual preparation phase as the new school year approaches.
On Monday night the Board heard the first of what will be several Continuous Improvement Plans from the principals and directors of each school and learning facility in the district. Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann said the presentations are an important tool for each of the locations to review their own performance in the previous year and share with the school board their goals and intentions for the next year. He said it is also very important to have those goals on the public record.
“We really focus on our vision and our strategic commitments to achieving the benchmarks that the Board has approved as indicators of the health of the system. That means being transparent with the Community about how we’re doing across all 11 benchmarks that we’ve identified as important things that would signal success of our school district.”
The Board heard two presentations on Monday night. The first was from the Director of the Northfield Community Education Center, Erin Bailey, who said the highest goal at the NCEC is to focus on the youngest learners. Hillmann said the Early Ventures Childcare Center and the Northfield preschool programs are excellent tools to help prepare students for kindergarten. When a student arrives at kindergarten ready to go, he said the chances that that student will excel in academics over the next twelve years increase exponentially. For the second year in a row 100% of the students who started kindergarten in 2022 that had been in the district’s preschool program were deemed ready for kindergarten, and Hillmann praised Bailey and her staff for that kind of success.
The second presentation was made by the Director of the Area Learning Center, Daryl Kehler. The students at the ALC are people over the age of 18 who are pursuing their high school diplomas, and Hillmann said the ALC’s focus for them is on attendance and credit recovery. While school attendance might seem like a fundamental thing to many people, Dr. Hillmann said that is not always the case.
“Some people might say, ‘Well, just go to school.’ Well, what I’m going to tell you is that some of the students at the ALC deal with hurdles and challenges that most adults listening would curl up in the fetal position just thinking about. And these students are really overcoming challenges and hurdles to get to school to do their best and to graduate.”
Monday night’s School Board meeting was the unofficial start to the 2023-2024 school calendar. The first day of school will be September 5th.
Northfield Shares puts a new twist on ‘Northfield Shares an Evening of Entertainment’
And Northfield Shares has announced a major fundraising event that will take place in September.
Northfield Shares an Evening of Entertainment, Live! Will be September 16th at the Estenson Farm and Event Center just south of Northfield.
In January 2021, the community foundation held a fundraiser called Northfield Shares an Evening of Entertainment. AS the Covid-19 pandemic was in full force at that time, the organization presented an online, telethon style event featuring entertainers, all with a Northfield connection, who sent videos from all over the world.
With the pandemic now subsided, and building off the success of the 2021 event, Northfield Shares will revive the program in front of a live audience.
Program director Kari Freund Johnson said many of the evening’s performers are being kept as a surprise, but she did say Chad Johnson, one of the area’s most popular entertainers, will be on the bill, as will the Northfield Youth Choirs. There will also be a performance by a group from St. Olaf College playing traditional Japanese Taiko drums.
Intermingled with the performances, Johnson said the night will also feature inspirational impact stories from the foundation’s non-profit partners and some of the Northfield Shares donors. Northfield Shares Executive Director Carrie Carroll said the stories will be an excellent reminder of the strength and generosity of the Northfield Community.
“Our goal is, obviously, to raise dollars to support our work, but we want to celebrate our community as well, because our community is pretty amazing. The work our nonprofits do, the individuals that work with our nonprofits or receive program services or through our programs. But before all that happens, it’s important to acknowledge what some of our donors have done in the past to make these programs run.”
Northfield Shares an Evening of Entertainment, LIVE! is set for Saturday, September 16th. Tickets for the event, including a limited amount of VIP experience tickets can be purchased by visiting northfieldshares.org.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
