Dear Northfield School District Families:
I hope this message finds you well. We continue to be grateful for your support and engagement in our school community.
Parent/caregiver satisfaction survey
We had over 900 parents/caregivers participate in the annual parent/caregiver satisfaction survey. Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback! We will share the results with you when we receive the survey reports. We use your feedback to improve our school experience and include action steps as part of our annual school improvement plans.
“Grow your own” grant
Our “grow your own” grant from the Minnesota Department of Education is intended to help Black, Indigenous, and People of Color from our community attain their teacher’s license. The application process has launched. If you know of candidates for this program, please encourage them to learn more here.
Budget prioritization teams
I have previously shared information about the need for the district to reduce its expenditures by approximately $4.5 million over the next two years due to chronic state underfunding and projected declining enrollment. The budget prioritization teams are finishing their work and our administrative team will take this feedback and create a budget plan that will be shared with the board on April 11. Thank you to the over 60 people who participated in these teams. To be clear, while we are aiming to prioritize expenditures to align with our strategic plan, there will be budget reductions. While this will be difficult, we are committed to stewardship and ensuring we have a sustainable budget plan is part of that commitment.
School board meeting update
The school board held a regular board meeting on March 28. The board packet & table file are located on our website. The board approved the consent agenda, the resolution in support of the congressional IDEA full funding act, 2022-25 achievement & integration plan, and 2022 resolution establishing combined polling places. A video of the regular board meeting is available on our website, and you can listen to my recap of the meeting on KYMN radio.
Partnerships: St. Olaf physics program at Greenvale Park
Greenvale Park students have been participating in a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) experience led by St. Olaf physics students and professors. Each class participates in hands-on experiments between March 17 and April 14th. A team of Greenvale Park teachers, Robert Garcia, Betsy McLaughlin, Ada Leaphart and Kelly Johnson, collaborated with professor Eric Hazlett to organize this effort. One of the district’s strategic commitments is partnerships. We are grateful for our partnerships with St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges because they bring tremendous value to our students’ learning experience.
Thank You
While our new COVID-19 cases have dramatically decreased, I know the effects of the pandemic are still clearly present. Thank you for your ongoing efforts to support your students and our community.
Sincerely,
Matt
Matt Hillmann, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools