Minneapolis, MN

Many students no-shows for start of extended school year in Minneapolis

Published

2 years ago

June 14, 2022

Many students no-shows for start of extended school year in Minneapolis

Pupil attendance varies at MPS as a result of warmth, excused absences

With the varsity 12 months set to proceed one other two weeks for Minneapolis Public Faculties college students to make up for misplaced days throughout a academics’ union strike earlier within the 12 months, these attending are discovering their courses usually empty.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Strolling out of Washburn Excessive College on the finish of this primary day of the two-week extension to the varsity 12 months, junior Naomi Noble famous she’d but to expertise a “regular” 12 months of highschool.

“My freshman 12 months we left throughout March. My sophomore college 12 months I wasn’t right here. After which this college 12 months we had strikes and COVID and the whole lot.”

The almost three-week-long academics strike in March is why Minneapolis Public Faculties added a further two weeks to the calendar, which started Monday, to make up for misplaced time. Additional minutes have been added to high school days starting in April.

However this two-week extension, very similar to previous college years, is something however regular as properly. A few of Naomi’s courses didn’t have plenty of college students nonetheless in them.

“It was actually loopy, I believe considered one of my courses I had about 5 or so and the following one I had like 12…it was simply actually empty.”

Due to conflicts, be it summer season camps or household holidays or summer season jobs, Minneapolis faculties allowed households to choose their college students out of the prolonged 12 months, basically excusing absences, offered the scholars met their educational necessities. That is dealt with on a school-by-school foundation.

Greta Callahan, the president of the Minneapolis academics union, did an off-the-cuff survey of her members on Monday, and lots of reported again that over 25% of their college students have been absent.

And now comes the warmth.

Starting Tuesday, 14 faculties that don’t have ample air-con are shifting to distance studying. Amongst them, Subject Elementary, the place Nelson Inz was choosing up his 4th grader, George.

Inz can be a college board member, and referred to as his tenure “tougher than I ever would have imagined being on the varsity board this 12 months.”

He stated that the district’s potential to pivot shortly to studying on-line is one optimistic results of the pandemic expertise as a result of attending class in these buildings with out air-con shouldn’t be an possibility.

“Youngsters can entry some form of studying by the gap studying course of that 3 or 4 years in the past they wouldn’t have the ability to do,” he famous.

There are additionally a lot of workers lacking college, as properly. Callahan, the trainer’s union president, stated that the district instructed her that over 600 workers have been absent. However she denied there’s any form of organized “sick-out” being staged by academics to protest the prolonged 12 months. She stated these absences have been constant since earlier than the common 12 months ended.

As for Naomi Noble, the Washburn junior, she hopes to satisfy her educational necessities but this week and be excused for subsequent week. And hopes much more that her senior 12 months could lastly be “regular”

“I simply need like COVID circumstances to be gone, identical to end it out regular, like the way you see in motion pictures and stuff I assume!”

Source link

Click to comment

Minneapolis, MN

Fireworks proceed in Minneapolis after daytime rain showers clear out

Published

6 hours ago

July 5, 2024

Press Room

Fireworks proceed in Minneapolis after daytime rain showers clear out

Call it a Fourth of July miracle.

After a day of heavy rains, the sun peeked out early Thursday evening and the Red, White, and Boom event in Minneapolis was back on track.

“I kept checking Facebook, trying to see if they are going to be on, and they said they’re going,” laughed Jenai Brazell of Richfield. “And I said, ‘Let’s go, it’s time to go.’”

There was dancing and live music at Mill Ruins Park after the city’s announcement that the fireworks show would go on.

Fourth of July forecast causing some cities to reschedule or cancel fireworks

“When it cleared up, we decided to come down, get some food, listen to some music,” says Brittany Bennett, who lives nearby.

Bennett and her toddler son, Aiden, looked ready to celebrate the nation’s birthday.

“Hopefully, it stays clear and people get to enjoy the fireworks,” she said. “It’d be a big letdown if it didn’t happen.”

But earlier in the day the prospects for a successful fireworks show didn’t look so good.

Vendors busied themselves getting their food trucks ready in case the weather cleared.

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board workers on the riverfront tried to stay positive.

“The weather, you can’t control Mother Nature,” declared Sammy Vazquez, a lemonade vendor.

There was water, water everywhere, it seemed — a super-soaker that put a damper on the holiday mood.

“Disappointing. You know, it’s Independence Day, everybody wants to see — hopefully, we see some fireworks tonight,” said Andy Long, an equipment operator with Minneapolis parks.

But remember the poem on the Statue of Liberty?

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses …”

A day we celebrate our independence and freedom is perhaps also a day of miracles.

“I heard the fireworks are amazing. I’m excited to see what happens tonight,” said Meredith Jolin, visiting from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Fireworks mirrored over the Mississippi — an evening of patriotism and joy replacing a day of gloomy weather.

“Seeing all the food trucks, seeing everybody out, it’s a good sense of community here,” said Jolin’s husband, Kevin.

Source link

Minneapolis, MN

New north Minneapolis trail construction set to begin next week

Published

13 hours ago

July 4, 2024

Press Room

New north Minneapolis trail construction set to begin next week

Summit Ave repair and bike trail stirs debate in St. Paul

Summit Ave in St. Paul is one of the most iconic stretches of road in Minnesota — and as the city prepares to repair aging infrastructure under the street, a proposal to add a raised bike lane is stirring a passionate debate among residents.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – Construction is set to begin next week on a mixed-use riverfront trail in north Minneapolis that will extend a popular regional trail.

The new riverfront trail segment will connect Ole Olson Park and the 26th Avenue North Overlook, creating a new 1,000-foot trail in the process that officials hope will add “new riverside experiences” to the area for pedestrians and cyclists. The trail also connects the 26th Avenue North Overlook to the downtown riverfront and the Grand Rounds National Scenic Byway – a 51-mile continuous bike/walk trail that circles most of Minneapolis.

The addition will connect to an off-street trail on 26th Avenue North, which travels across north Minneapolis between the Mississippi River and Theodore Wirth Regional Park.

Contractors are scheduled to begin work on July 8, with hopes of completion by late-fall this year.

Construction will begin with strategic tree clearing over portions of the site – an act that officials say is unavoidable due to grading that will ensure the trail has a safe incline and sightlines.

Once completed, the new trail will take people down the riverbank, under the BNSF railway bridge, and back up to street level on either side of the connection, according to project documents.

The trail will also be constructed to withstand emergency and maintenance vehicles, up to a pickup truck, when needed.

Source link