Observer Report: Northfield School Board, 5.11.26

Meeting Video Recording

1. Call to Order by Board Chair Claudia Gonzalez-George at 6:00 pm. All board members present.
   
   
2. Agenda Approval/Table File approved unanimously (see Board Packet and Table File)
   
   
3. Public Comment
   1. No members of the public signed up to comment.
      
      
4. Announcements and Recognitions
   1. Congratulate Ella Whelp, Sophomore, who won first place in the 2026 U.S. Congressional Art Contest, selected by Rep. Angie Craig. The painting will be on display at U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
   2. HS Wrestlers Kaley Graber, Caden Staab, and Zane Engles who earned first team academic all state letters from MN Wrestling Coaches Association.
   3. 9^th grader Audrey Breen played on a historic violin from “Violins of Hope” collection during the Greater Youth Symphony Concert at MN Orchestra Hall, and then brought the violin to the High School Orchestra class.
5. Items for Discussion and Reports
   • Teamworks Demographic Study Report: Dr. Sherry Allen from Teamworks presented the demographic study from board packet (page 7-66 in Board Packet). Dr. Allen did high level overview and noted that the report is split into two sections: section one reports overall demographic patterns of neighborhoods in the district from 2020 Census, birth rate data, county data, etc., while section two looks at impact of market share and future housing development on 10-year projections. Key takeaways:
     • Overall total population had good growth by 8.4% from 2010 to 2025, but ages 0-14 declined by ~10.5% combined, and overall school enrollment declined 1.75% in that time.
     • Students are retained at an incredibly high rate.
     • Facility utilization rate (78.3%) is strong and indicative of good planning, although still flexible enough to grow.
     • On pages 22 and 23 (29 and 30 in the Board Packet) discussed the changes in birth rates in the district and comparable to nearby districts. Only nearby district worse decline than NPS is New Prague.
   • Board Member Corey Butler asked for clarification for why there’s a slight increase in resident birth rates. Dr. Allen said it was due to where the district was at the lowest, not at the beginning.
   • Board member Ben Miller asked to know what the birth rate being compared to. Butler clarified that it’s taken from the decline. Dr. Allen said that it is unclear if increase trend will continue.
   • Board Member Amy Goerwitz questioned whether racial makeup was over time or a snapshot. Dr. Allen clarified it was a snapshot. She shared page 48 (page 55 in board packet) in the presentation to show projections. Invited them to consider how they want to use it for planning and facility usage.
   • Superintendent Matt Hillmann commented the data will help the board continue to plan, acknowledge the depths in birth decline, but also imagine development opportunities to reach out and encourage people to attend the Northfield Public Schools, and identified that we should be proud of the retention rate. Once students start here—they often stay here! Important to focus on that, and how to use this over the planning to right size and adjust with declining enrollment. Lot of data—long report—but if you have future questions, Teamworks is prepared to help support. This report affirms data from 4-5 years ago with fresh set of data.
   • Miller asked Hillmann: Board in the past had used 1.2 students per family as a metric, but Hillmann clarified that this number has changed (0.36). Now down below 1 student per household. Dilemma of report—the info behind the data is that there is an increase in housing but still declining enrollment. People aren’t selling homes, especially single-family homes. Also fair to say that cost of housing compared to similar communities could play a role. Miller said that now apartments metric now exceeds single-family metric and acknowledge that it helps to think about policy. Hillmann reiterated that as public servants it’s imperative to think about how to share this information broadly.
   • Miller’s takeaways: lower per student/household rate and declining birth rate (not equivalent to declining enrollment). Hillmann reiterated that on report pages 22-23 that NPS is not alone in similar districts, but also significant housing growth in places like Lakeville increases enrollment and birth rate in those communities. Also need to look at raw numbers, particularly for smaller districts (i.e., Randolph has 5% enrollment increase but = to 1 student). Hillmann noted how important it is to look at birth rate in other districts like Faribault which open enrolls many students to NPS.
   • Miller asked about facility utilization, particularly Bridgewater which already has a high usage, and noted there are housing developments planned for that area. Could they get over 100%? Dr. Allen said it was possible, but many factors. If you get a building with high utilization, can then revisit boundaries.
   • Board Member Jenny Nelson: great item to present to City Council, particularly in areas of growth in buildings to be important to their decision making. Hillmann said it will definitely be shared with them. Nelson asked if MDE will take in third party reports like this for applying for grants? Hillmann: depends on grant and what we’re looking for, i.e, demographic data is updated by MDE every year on the report card, unlike this report which is a snapshot. But NPS has shared third-party reports in the past. It shows that partnerships are strong when utilized. Nelson noted that grants are becoming more competitive and more data could give leg up. Dr. Allen shared that many districts have used these reports for Safe Routes to Schools grants, for instance. Hillmann also said that reports are used by partners, particularly HCI.
   • Butler asked about K-12 survivial cohort—only students who enroll as Kindergartners, or all births? Dr. Allen clarified it is kindergartners is starting point, but as you grow, that’s why that number can be higher than 100% as students enter the district. Butler commented that this makes sense, particularly as it relates to next presentation (re: Prairie Creek Community School) and the public school choice that is available in the community.
   • Hillmann pointed out re: birth rates that NH+C had 700+ births last year as shared on KYMN. But these are different numbers. This report is resident births, Many local hospitals have eliminated birthing units, so folks outside of this community are coming to NH+C for labor and delivery services. Hillmann asked if they could include open enrollment info in packets given to new parents (answer: no) but doing some more strategic marketing with to NH+C to share information about why Northfield is not just a great place to have a baby, but for school, too.
   • Goerwitz: Survival cohort—so if 100 students enter in K, but then some flow in and out—is it not individuals surviving, but aggregate numbers in the cohort? Dr. Allen—Yes, it is the aggregate.

5. Prairie Creek Community School (PCCS) Contract Renewal:
   • Daryl Kehler (principal of the Area Learning Center and charter school liaison) introduced the process. Letter of Inquiry from PCCS started renewal application (pages 67-158 in the board packet), includes evidence collected along with the renewal rubric to score it. PCCS scored strongly, so then started process of renewing contract which can go up to 5 years. The renewal proposed is 5 years like the previous one. Much of the contract is similar to previous ones, but one difference in Article 6 is the enrollment (proposed to be phased in) of an additional 15 students over the five year term. Struggled with not wanting to get too big; note the increase  may not actually happen since PCCS wants to maintain their small nature. Also worth noting that there is a healthy population that comes from outside the district that then make way to NPS after PCCS. PCCS is also experiencing inflationary cost increases.
   • Hillmann reminded us that NPS is last school district in MN that authorizes school charters. Detailed application (over 80 pages) and thanked Kehler for his work on this as well as re-authorizing NPS as a charter school authorizer. He reiterated the district’s commitment to public school choice, appreciative of PCCS, appreciative of Simon Tyler’s work (PCCS Director, and wants to be intentional about phased in enrollment increase (last increase was in 2009).
   • Miller echoed Hillmann. Having been on both boards, Miller noted the working relationship that takes a lot of effort between PCCS and NPS, but worth it. NPS gains families to the district after they attend PCCS. Wonderful that we’ve been able to maintain it!
   • Butler thanked Kehler and Tyler. Glad to have had partnership for over 20 years. Underscoring raw numbers point from previous presentation, voiced support over enrollment increase at PCCS. As Miller mentioned, supporting PCCS comes back around to supporting NPS.
6. Consent Agenda approved unanimously without discussion.
7. Minutes
8. Gift Agreements
9. Policy Revisions
10. Personnel Items
11. Items for Individual Action
    • Revised 2025-26 Community Education Fund Budget: First presented at April 13 board meeting. No discussion and unanimously approved.Proposed 2026-27 Budgets – All Funds: Presented and approved at various meetings over the past few months. No discussion and unanimously approved.
    • Resolution for Termination and Non-Renewal of Probationary Licensed Staff: No discussion. Roll call vote passes unanimously. 
12. Items for Information
    • Construction Update No. 26: Hillmann highlighted continued work on value engineering with team from the district meeting weekly to refine the value engineering components. Have a schedule for the 15 bid packages that will be re-bid. Follow similar process as before but will try some different approaches (like splitting out product and labor). Released in May, due in mid-June, and then special meeting on June 24 to adopt the bid packages. Hoping for better results from the March bid date
      • Nelson: Is there a list of the 15 bid packages? She looked through what we did receive and only counted
      • Director of Finance Valorie Mertestdorf said she would double check, but knows there are two packages that were smaller dollar amounts that district is only receiving quotes for those. Will share once confirmed.Superintendent Search Update: Epstein shared an overview of the update (page 301 in board packet).Later School Start Times Update: Hillmann invited board members to think about how the board approaches Thursday’s work session. First noted that due to public requests, they had agreed that they are recording the work session on Thursday. Hillmann encouraged the board to consider formalizing if, when, and how work sessions are conducted, noting that work sessions from dais can feel formal when in reality they want them to feel more committee like. Second, Hillmann shared discussion points with other districts who have changed their times, but feels that he isn’t sure he has any more data to share. Every district’s journey is slightly different, and how they made the decision is based on many components. Ex. Buffalo been doing for ~10 years, they did it at no increase to their budget because they already had a tiered system—elementary route AND a secondary route. Ex. Mankato—but they made a number of changes to their transportation budget, so later high school start times came as part of a larger transportation change. NPS does have the capacity according to Benjamin Bus to do a tiered system, but also have a close to a cost neutral option to push it back by 40 minutes. Hillmann will bring a survey to the board that Dr. Anderson will end up implementing and wants the questions to be reflective of their discussion. Comes down to: What’s the philosophy? What’s the social capital needed to make the change? What are we willing to spend in order to do it? Plan is to discuss these questions.Graduation Dates: Thursday, June 4, 2026, 6:00 p.m., ALC Graduation, Northfield Middle School Auditorium  and Sunday, June 7, 2026, 2:00 p.m., High School Graduation, Memorial Field
    • Hillmann noted that they had missed the enrollment report. Went back to it—noted similar to previous month that they increased by 1 person, and showed curent class sizes.
    • Miller asked about St. Olaf work on research enrollment. Hillmann stated a summary has been shared in board bulletin a while back but are hoping to share the findings at the next meeting or in June.
    • Mertesdorf lastly updated on the previous question about bids–15 outstanding packages, 13 will be bid, two won’t because they typically don’t do re-bids for those (lockers and elevators) since they likely won’t receive any. Mertesdorf listed off the different bid packages: general trades, masonry, structural steel, metal wall panels, framing and drywall, tile, resilient flooring and carpet, acoustical treatments and ceiling, painting, athletic and wood flooring, terazzo, food service equipment, and HVAC (best value process).
13. Future Meetings
    • Thursday, May 14, 2026, 5:15 p.m., Work Session, Later School Start Times, Northfield DO Boardroom*Tuesday, May 26, 2026, 6:00 p.m., Regular Board Meeting, Northfield DO Boardroom *Note that Monday, May 25, 2026 is Memorial Day Thursday, June 4, 2026, 6:00 p.m., ALC Graduation, Northfield Middle School Auditorium Sunday, June 7, 2026, 2:00 p.m., High School Graduation, Memorial Field
    • Monday, June 8, 2026, 6:00 p.m., Regular Board Meeting, Northfield DO Boardroom
      
      

Gonzalez-George adjourned the meeting at 6:57 PM.

Submitted by Alyssa Melby, Observer, League of Women Voters