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What’s making news in Minneapolis, reported by the Star Tribune’s team of city reporters. Send news tips to james.shiffer@startribune.com.
Posts about Parks and recreation
Schools may lower academic bar for sports
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: December 11, 2012 - 4:37 PM
Minneapolis high schools may loosen their academic standards for competing in athletics and other inter-scholastic competitions.
The district officially has required a student to average at least a C in the previous quarter, but in practice has allowed students with a cumulative C average for their high school careers to compete.
Now a proposal before the school board would allow students who make at least a .1 improvement in their grade-point average in the previous term to compete, even if they are below a C or 2.0 average. The board will discuss the proposal Tuesday evening and is scheduled to vote on it on Dec. 18.
Nan Miller, who oversees policy revisions for the district, said she’s not aware from her research of another district in Minnesota that allows a growth standard for competing in such activities as athletics, debate and drama or music competitions.
The Minnesota State High School League, which oversees such competitions, merely sets a standard that a competing student be making progress toward graduation. Some set a grade-point standard while others require that a student not fail any classes, according to Dave Stead, the league’s executive director. But the league doesn’t keep track of those standards, he said.
The district’s current standard has been criticized by some coaches for denying a chance to compete some students whose studies are disrupted by factors such as homelessness, family conflict or babysitting siblings. Others say that athletics or other competitions keep students engaged in school.
“Student after study shows us how important student engagement in school activities is,” Miller said. The proposed standard may be found on the board's agenda.
Thursday roundup: Airport noise plan advances, furor over freight trains, NFL seat licenses
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: November 15, 2012 - 9:41 AMMAC to vote on new flight plan: Noise Oversight Committee approved routing system devised by FAA; it concentrates flights over parts of Edina and Minneapolis. (Steve Brandt)
Bar manager pleads guilty in tax refund scam: A manager of the 400 Soundbar could be deported to her native Liberia after helping to steal $550,000. (Dan Browning)
Seat licenses prevalent in the NFL: The governor's concern over any use by Vikings might have more to do with their potential cost. (Mike Kaszuba)
City likely to support more resignation transparency: City officials took some heat recently for claiming that a new state law doesn't apply to top Minneapolis appointees. But the city's lobbyists are likely to push for more transparency at the Legislature next year. (Eric Roper)
Don't reroute freight trains, St. Louis Park residents plead: More than 300 people packed City Hall in St. Louis Park, most hoping to convince officials that a plan to move train traffic from Minneapolis is a "lose-lose" for the city. (Kelly Smith)
Six light rail stations to close for weekend (Paul Walsh)
Holidazzle parades resume full schedule (Paul Walsh)
Tuesday roundup: Governor lashes Vikings, North Loop office boom, aqueous precinct
Posted by: James Eli Shiffer Updated: November 13, 2012 - 9:40 AMGovernor lambasts Vikings over stadium details: Gov. Mark Dayton Tuesday wrote a stern letter to the Minnesota Vikings' owners threatening to undo the stadium deal if they pass on the building costs to fans. (Rachel E. Stassen-Berger)
Towering plan for North Loop: Long home to hipster lofts, condos and restaurants, development of Class A office space has lagged somewhat in the burgeoning area. But Houston-based Hines, a global real estate developer, is pitching an office tower of that ilk called 350 North Fifth for a spot adjacent to the home of the Minnesota Twins. (Janet Moore)
In this voting precinct, you can cast votes with a fishing pole: Intrigued by the lack of results posted after Tuesday's election for Ward 10, Precinct 3B, a reporter inquired of City Clerk Casey Carl where they were. Carl pointed to the redistricted precinct map -- which shows 3B lying entirely in the east half of Lake Calhoun. (Steve Brandt)
Charge: Tot tossed "like a sack of potatoes": The 21-year-old suspect admitted throwing a 21-month-old girl on a bed. She suffered a severe spinal cord injury. (Randy Furst and Paul Walsh)
Board clarifies conflict of interest for elected officials (Steve Brandt)
Single-sort recycling debuts for 30,000 households (Eric Roper)
Electeds not conflicted on planning group
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: November 12, 2012 - 12:41 PMWhen it comes to conflicts of interests, serving on the planning commission and representing another public body is different from representing a business.
That's the gist of an opinion last week from the Minnesota Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board on a joint request brought by the city, the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board and the Board of Education.
They sought advice on whether their members are conflicted in cases in which the Park Board or school board seek an action from the Planning Commission. The law requires disclosure of conflicts in cases where a public official's duties involve an action that affects the official's financial interests or those of an associated business.
The board said that public jurisdictions don't meet the definition of a business in the law nor that in common usage.
That may seem like a common sense approach, but the question has come up several times at the commission and "we always like clarity," said Steve Liss, the school district's general counsel. For example, the planning commission on Oct. 29 denied a rezoning and several related actions involving a school district attempt to convert to parking some residential property on a block adjoining its headquarters. Under the ruling, Richard Mammen, the school board representative to the commission, had no conflict is voting against the denial.
At least one planning commissioner also has raised the issue of whether Hennepin County's appointee to the commission should vote on county-related issues. The city is due to release recommendations about planning commission ethics next week.
Voting difficult in this precinct without a snorkel
Posted by: Steve Brandt Updated: November 12, 2012 - 3:58 PM
Minne, the lake monster, at Wirth Lake, which has no voting precinct, unlike Lake Calhoun.
If anyone is planning on voting in Ward 10, Precinct 3B, that person had better have a houseboat.
Intrigued by the lack of results posted for the precinct after Tuesday's election, this reporter asked City Clerk Casey Carl where they were. He nicely noted that we obviously hadn’t looked closely at the redistricted precinct map — it’s entirely Lake Calhoun.
This begs the question of why assign a precinct to the lake. “It’s the unintentional result of a programming error made in drawing new ward boundary lines during the redistricting process,” Carl said in an e-mail.
Barry Clegg, who chairs the line-drawing Charter Commission elaborated that the software “could not draw the line around the edge of the lake without putting a census block in the wrong ward; it would just connect along the shortest distance between two points, which meant a line across the lake.”
So far, there’s nobody registered to vote in the precinct, a situation that’s not likely to change unless Minne, the lake monster art piece that’s been shuttling among city lakes, is shifted to Calhoun. But at least there’s one precinct out there where there’s no waiting in line to vote.
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