After months of quiet negotiations, the Northfield School District announced a tentative agreement yesterday with the Northfield Education Association on a new two-year contract for the district’s teachers that will run through the end of the 2025 school year
A statement released by the Northfield school district said the terms of the contract include a 6% increase in the base salary for teachers in the first year of the agreement, a 3% increase in the second year, and a 5% increase in the district’s contribution to health insurance in each year of the agreement. The district will provide eight weeks of paid maternity leave for all eligible employees, including teachers and all other district employees, and will no longer require the employee to use their accrued sick leave.
The average increase in salary and benefits for a teacher will be $6,647 per year during the two-year agreement.
In the statement, Northfield Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Matt Hillmann, said the contract addresses inflationary concerns and maintains a competitive advantage in salary and benefits to both attract and retain excellent teachers, who, he said, “make a huge difference for kids.”
NEA President Kevin Dahle said in the statement that the contract “reinforces a partnership that strives to provide a quality staff and a great workplace for teachers and students.”
The school board will vote on the contract at its Aug. 28 meeting. The NEA membership is expected to vote on ratification by Aug. 31
Pumper truck back-order helps keep NAFRS Budget flat
The Northfield Area Fire and Rescue Service has finalized its budget needs for 2024, and after a substantial increase in 2023, NAFRS Chief Tom Nelson is reporting a 0% increase to the Operating Budget in 2024, and a slight increase to the Capital Budget.
One year after the department went through a nearly complete overhaul, the new system seems to be accomplishing the things it was designed for. The biggest change from 2022 to 2023 was the creation of a position for a full-time Fire Chief who would not just run the fire department but also fulfill the role of fire inspector that had always been a part of the job description but had rarely been properly executed.
After taking the position as of February 1st, Chief Tom Nelson has met those responsibilities with energy and vigor. At the Northfield City Council Budgeting work session last week, Nelson detailed the programs he has put in place, the work he has done with city building inspectors, the way he has worked with both St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges to cut down on false alarms, and the emphasis he has put on enforcement.
Nelson told the Council, simply, “I feel like we’re safer.” Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig agreed with him.
“Prevention of fires is really what saves lives, and that’s probably been an area where we’ve been a little more deficient because of the lack of resources. So, because he now he is our new full-time chief, our first one in Northfield, he has been much more proactive. It was a significant change [for 2023] but there’s no question that it’s really been very helpful.”
The return on investment is difficult to calculate based on fires prevented, but the budget for 2024 shows that the changes in 2023 were accurately valued. Nelson said the Operating Budget will remain flat this year.
The Capital Equipment budget will see an increase as the fire department has signed a purchase agreement for a new pumper truck. However, as anyone who has tried to purchase a new vehicle in 2023 has seen, labor and material shortages have put the truck on a two-year back order, and it will not be delivered until 2025. Nelson said, however, that situation can be seen as beneficial from a budget standpoint.
“It’s almost handy because it takes them two years to build it, which means we can spread the payments out. You know, we’ll make the down payment in 2024 and so that line item is there in the budget, and then we’ll pay the balance in 2025.”
Overall, Nelson said, the NAFRS budget increase will be 9%. Northfield’s contribution to the NAFRS budget will be approximately $800,000.
Jeff Johnson’s full conversation with Northfield City Administrator Ben Martig can be heard here
Rice County United Way helping to promote literacy
The Rice County Area United Way released a statement yesterday inviting the public to a pair of free screenings of the 2023 documentary The Right to Read.
The 80-minute documentary, according to the statement, exposes the nation’s literacy crisis. It will be accompanied by discussions on the topic of literacy in our local schools, led by Superintendent Matt Hillman in Northfield and Superintendent Jamie Bente in Faribault.
The film examines the decades-long national movement away from teaching phonics and other reading fundamentals, which has led to plunging test scores.
The problem in Minnesota was just illustrated on Thursday when the state reading test scores were released. Statewide, the scores were flat with 2022, meaning students are 10% less inclined to be reading at grade level than they were in 2019.
In The Right to Read, the literacy crisis is described as a civil rights issue. Children of Black, Hispanic and indigenous parents are displaying the biggest reading deficits. That said, the issue isn’t isolated to non- white populations. The film shows the literacy crisis through the stories of NAACP activist Kareem Weaver, a rookie first-grade teacher, and children in Oakland, California who are struggling to read.
“Illiteracy is a pipeline to prison,” said Weaver, “It’s also the pipeline to homelessness. It’s the pipeline to unemployment and depression.”
The film was directed by Emmy-Award winning filmmaker Jenny Mackensie and produced by the Artemis Rising Foundation and LeVar Burton Entertainment. Burton has long championed literacy as host of the show Reading Rainbow, which ran on PBS for more than 20 years.
The film will be shown at the Northfield Public Library on Wednesday, September 20th from 6-8 pm., and at the Buckham Memorial Library’s Great Hall in Faribault on Tuesday, October 10th, from 5:30-7:30 pm. Light refreshments will be served.
The screening is sponsored by Northfield Rotary, Northfield Public Library and the Rice County Area United Way.
Rich Larson is the KYMN News Director. Contact him at rich@kymnradio.net
