Subscribe and Follow LoGro
|
By Griff Wigley, on February 24, 2012, 7:18 am
  
The Northfield School Board held a reception at the Northfield Golf Club last night honoring Chris Richardson for his MASA award as Minnesota’s 2012 Superintendent of the Year. See the Oct. 31, 2011 press release on the Northfield School District’s site for details on the honor.
High School teacher Kevin Dahle was the Master of Ceremonies and spiced things up throughout with his comedian routine, eg, "I’d like to thank the decorations committee for the wonderful country club theme" and "When the reception is over, please follow last in-first out protocol for your departure" and "The cake is sponsored by the MN legislature but you can only eat 60% of it now with the rest available…" Clever guy, that Kevin. Even Dave Neuger got into it: "Chris is a wonderful person, hard working, extremely talented, respected by… um… ah…. let’s see… help me out here, Chris, I’m having trouble reading your handwriting." None of those are exact quotes but close enough.
Unfortunately, I only had my crappy smartphone camera to use for photos and as you’ll see, it doesn’t do well indoors.
   
      
By Griff Wigley, on February 1, 2011, 10:27 pm
About a year ago, Northfield Public Schools superintendent Chris Richardson accepted my offer to meet with him so I could explain why the District’s website sucked big time. He took copious notes, and his eyes did not seem to glaze over. But I seriously doubted anything would come of it.
 Imagine my delighted surprise when two District staffers, Administrative Support Assistant Heather Kuchinka and Matt Hillman, Director of Human Resources and Technology, signed up for my online WordPress for Noobs course. They then revealed that they were about to unveil a new District website, based on WordPress, constructed by Daniel Edwins, WordPress guru at Neuger Communications Group.
Last week, gave Heather and Matt gave me a preview and during the meeting, Chris stopped by to toss around some lingo, something to the effect of "We’ve got a boatload of RSS feeds and our permalinks are the prettiest around." You rock, Chris!
 Today, the District portion of the revamped site is up, and according to this news item (note that pretty permalink), "In the coming months, we will be rolling out new individual school sites in an effort to mirror the updates made at the district level."
They’ve set up a feedback page with a form on it, but I hate that. I can’t learn from the feedback from anyone else, nor can I read their reaction to the feedback. So if you’re a fan of public feedback and conversation-as-a-path-to-public engagement, post your feedback in a comment here and I’ll see if I can twist their arms to join us.
By Griff Wigley, on January 27, 2011, 11:30 pm
Northfield Schools Superintendent Chris Richardson posted this letter on the District’s website yesterday.
 We believe that the combination of lower revenue and inflationary expenditures will result in a $2,400,000 structural deficit (expenditures exceeding revenues) for 2011-12.
 Even with the purposeful spend down of $1,666,000 of our District fund balance to the minimum recommended by our auditor, our review shows that our revenue will not equal the expenditures that have been forecast for the 2011-12 year. If no other action is taken, we anticipate a deficit of approximately $705,000 at the end of the 2011-12 school year that would further reduce our fund balance below a prudent minimum level.
In order to balance our revenues and expenditures and avoid further reduction of our fund balance below the recommended minimum, we believe we must cut approximately $705,000 from the 2011-12 budget.
For more, see:
Nfld News article: Budget Crunch: Schools face staff cuts
Nfld Patch article: Northfield School District to Draw on Costly Financial History to Deal With Likely Budget Cuts
Nfld Patch article: Northfield School Board Prepares for Cuts in State Aid
By Griff Wigley, on November 28, 2010, 2:59 pm
 In a town with a thousand PhD’s, nobody refers to or addresses any of them with ‘Dr.’ or ‘Doctor.’
But for some reason, KYMN (example here) and the League of Women Voters of Northfield (example here) use it with the superintendent of schools. The Northfield News used to do it (2008 example here) but appears to have discontinued it. I was glad to see that Northfield Patch did NOT do this last week in its first district-related story. Not even the school district itself does it, sticking instead to "Superintendent Richardson" in its minutes, though some school board members have a tendency to address him as ‘Doctor’ during the course of a board meeting.
I have nothing against Chris Richardson or the previous Northfield District superintendents, but IMHO, only medical physicians should be addressed as ‘Doctor’ or have the ‘Dr.’ in front of their names. Why treat superintendents as if they’re somehow special?
Our local college presidents (one has a Doctor of Philosophy/PhD, the other a Juris Doctor/JD) don’t get the Doctor/Dr. treatment from KYMN (example here). Not even former school superintendent Charlie Kyte (example here) does. So if they don’t, then neither should Richardson.
How about it, Jeff? How about it, Jessica?
By Griff Wigley, on March 16, 2010, 7:04 am
 In today’s Pioneer Press: Northfield teacher charged in St. Paul ear-biting attack:
A Northfield, Minn., middle school teacher faces a felony assault charge after prosecutors say she bit off part of a man’s ear during a drunken altercation in a St. Paul greasy spoon early Sunday. Susan Mukuhi Mwarabu, 30, of Rochester, Minn., was charged Monday with third-degree assault — inflicting substantial bodily harm — after the 4 a.m. incident at the Uptowner Cafe at Grand Avenue and Lexington Parkway.
The news is all over the media but nothing’s available online from the District’s web site, neither from Northfield Superintendent Chris Richardson nor from Middle School Principal Jeff Pesta. I’m on the Key Communicator email list. Nothing yet.
The District’s options are limited when it comes to its employees’ behavior when they’re not on-duty. But it sure would help to have Richardson and Pesta making some statements to let taxpayers and parents know how they’re approaching this problem.
By Griff Wigley, on February 9, 2010, 7:07 am
 Many local schools/districts cancelled classes two hours early yesterday and have scheduled two-late starts today cancelled classes today (Northfield school-closing info here).
I noticed some people bitching whining thoughtfully discussing this on Facebook yesterday and today. Some comments:
Continue reading If you were superintendent of schools, what would guide your snow-related school-closing decisions?
By Griff Wigley, on September 4, 2009, 10:24 am
 I spoke with Northfield Supt. Chris Richardson this morning. He’ll have a statement on the District’s web site around noon, basically stating that the District is leaving it up to the classrooms teachers on whether or not to show President Obama’s speech to students live, recorded, or not at all. I think that’s the best approach, unlike the recommendation from Northfielder Charlie Kyte, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, to show the speech later. I’m hoping teachers show it live, as events are always more compelling when they’re live. I still remember watching President Kennedy’s inaugural address live as an 8th grader. I suppose others remember President George H.W. Bush’s speech to students in 1991.
Continue reading Obama’s speech to students: show it live
By Griff Wigley, on August 24, 2009, 3:38 pm
 Site preparation has begun on the Sibley Elementary School expansion. Last week, construction permits were pulled because of a mixup. I didn’t see anything about it in last week’s Friday Memo so I phoned Jim Kessler, Northfield’s Building Official, and emailed Supt. Chris Richardson for details. I’ve not yet heard back from Kessler but Richardson wrote: (continued)
Continue reading Sibley Elementary School expansion begins; construction permit snafu resolved
By Griff Wigley, on February 27, 2009, 5:20 am
 Northfield Schools opted to NOT dismiss school early yesterday when an intense snowstorm began hitting the area at around 11 am. Northfield News reporter David Henke posted this comment to the discussion thread on the snow emergency article where some folks were complaining: (continued)
Continue reading School-closing decision for a midday snowstorm: ya win some and ya lose some
|
|
Current Discussion Threads