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Minnesota schools see influx of Latin American migrant students

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Schools across Minnesota are enrolling hundreds of new students who have arrived with a recent wave of Latin American migrants, prompting a mid-year scramble by district leaders to make sure they can offer the language and support services the young newcomers need.

The students’ arrival has boosted enrollment numbers in public schools, which get funding on a per-pupil basis. But it has also stretched resources in districts that need to hire more Spanish-speaking educators while also facing multi-million dollar budget cuts. Many of the students are living in homeless shelters, hotels or in small apartments they share with two or three other families. Some have missed months or years of schooling in their home country and many carry intense trauma from the violence they fled and the difficult journeys they took to get to the U.S.

“There’s a big gap in what we can do and what is needed,” Marion Tizón, the director of the Office of Latine Achievement, a new department in Minneapolis Public Schools. Tizón’s department is developing a plan to better support the new students, but it’s hard to know how long the influx of asylum seekers will continue. Staff in Minneapolis schools have been trying to predict how many families to expect based on the number of people coming to the border. But that’s hardly an exact science, because many families are going to other U.S. cities first before coming to Minneapolis.

Minnesota now ranks as a top destination for migrants accepting free plane tickets to leave New York City, where homeless shelters are struggling to keep up with record numbers of asylum-seekers. County officials have said they offer any new arrival much of the same help offered to any family in need, and that the county is applying lessons learned from responses to waves of immigrants from Afghanistan and Ukraine in recent years.

“I haven’t heard of a place that has got it down,” Tizón said. “We’re all doing what we can.”

Bloomington and Wayzata school districts are also serving students new to the U.S., many of whom are currently living in homeless shelters. Bloomington schools have 100 more newcomers identified as homeless or highly mobile than last year. Wayzata schools enrolled 36 Ecuadorian families.

Richfield has enrolled more than 120 newcomer students (including some from Afghanistan and Somalia as well as Latin America) so far this school year. That’s up from 80 for all of last school year and nearly double the number that came during the 2021-2022 school year.

Minneapolis schools have 800 more English Language Learner students than a year ago. Now, more than 2,500 students — nearly 9% of the district’s student body — are newly enrolled students who speak Spanish as a home language.

It can be difficult to track how many of these students are new to the country, but most of the Spanish-speaking students are newcomers, said Muhidin Warfa, the executive director of multilingual programs for Minneapolis schools.

“As much as we talk about need and numbers, I really think it’s important for the community to understand these students bring cultural and language assets to our community,” said Kasya Willhite, the director of multilingual learning for Richfield Public Schools.

Tizón agrees. And for Minneapolis, the new students have helped stabilize enrollment, which was predicted to continue to decline this year.

“I’m sure there are plenty of people who are going to say ‘Why are putting any energy into this if we have all these other issues?'” Tizón said. “Bottom line, we need more kids. We want to survive as a district; we want to grow, and we want to better our education so that we are giving the best education we possibly can to absolutely everyone.”

Some districts have separate schools for recent immigrants, but Minneapolis hasn’t adopted that model. It has dual-language schools, which teach in both English and Spanish, but those schools are among the few Minneapolis public schools that are near capacity. That means many students are in buildings and classrooms without many Spanish-speaking teachers or support staff.

Though the district has always immigrant students, the recent spike has meant that every school in the district has newcomers, Tizón said.

“Little elementary schools that have been historically pretty white and not diverse now have a population of newcomers,” she said. “Our biggest need in the district is to get bilingual staff on the ground in every school.”

Frustration and success

Christie Roiz-Guevara, a student and family advocate, is one of the few full-time bilingual staff at Edison High School. She’s often called to help talk to students, particularly those who are lingering in the hallways during class time.

“The students tell me they get frustrated because they don’t understand the teacher, so they just walk out,” she said. “We have to find ways to help them feel engaged and involved in a sense of community.”

That’s why she’s co-advising a new class for the students, where they can get to know each other and hear presentations on mental health and healthy relationships. She’s facilitated group sessions with the school-based therapist. The district is also offering additional teacher training aimed at building stronger relationships with the new students.

Many of the new high schoolers are also juggling jobs to help their families afford immigration lawyers or pay off debts from their journey to the U.S. Some of the teenagers came by themselves; others traveled with their families for sometimes months. They’ve told Roiz-Guevara stories about having to leave sick family members behind or continuing the journey after a loved one drowned during a river crossing.

“I had a mom who just broke down and said she’d never seen that much death in her life,” she said. “The stories are horrific.”

Gloria, who agreed to be identified by her first name because of concerns about legal status, is a mother of three children, including two who attend Folwell Elementary in south Minneapolis. She came to the U.S. from Ecuador about 5 months ago to join her husband. Her voice breaks when she talks of navigating the Darien Gap — a dangerous jungle connecting Panama and Colombia — with her children, the youngest strapped to her back. The tears come quick when she recalls crossing the river and feeling the current starting to pull her and her baby under the water.

She has been overwhelmed by the number of kind, caring people she’s met in Minneapolis, especially through the schools. Her daughter is doing well in her third-grade class, even though she sometimes comes home crying about not understanding English. The girl’s teacher recently told Gloria that her daughter is often the first student to correctly finish her math problems.

“I thank God that we are here and they sent us to Folwell school,” she said. “In this country, there is a lot of help.”



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Former Medtronic consultant gets 18 months federal prison for insider trading

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A former Medtronic consultant received an 18-month prison sentence this week for his role in a scheme linked to the $1.6 billion acquisition of an Israeli medical device company in 2018.

A federal jury in February convicted Doron “Ron” Tavlin, 69, of Minneapolis, of one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading and 10 additional counts related to securities fraud. That same jury found David Jay Gantman, 58, of Mendota Heights, not guilty of all charges against him. A third defendant — Afshin “Alex” Farahan, 57, of Los Angeles — pleaded guilty in 2022 and has yet to be sentenced.

“His crime was cynical and brazen. It was also reckless,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert wrote in a memo calling for a 3-year prison term. “Tavlin’s conduct had the potential to blow up a deal that a team of executives and financial advisers had been diligently negotiating for months.”

Tavlin is now scheduled to self-surrender Jan. 5 to begin his prison term, which will be followed by 320 hours of community service.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Tavlin learned about a secret, pending acquisition by Medtronic of Mazor Robotics, where he worked as vice president of business development, in 2018. Tavlin also previously worked as a consultant to the Ireland-based Medtronic, which also has a headquarters in Fridley.

Tavlin illegally tipped off Farahan, his friend, about news of the imminent acquisition and told him to keep the news secret. Farahan knew the deal would likely result in a boost to Mazor’s stock price and quickly bought more than $1 million of the company’s stock throughout August and September 2018. Medtronic announced plans to acquire Mazor, which specialized in robotics for spinal procedures, in September 2018 and the deal closed three months later.

Prosecutors said Farahan netted more than $245,000, and Gantman made $255,000 in profit by selling the securities quickly after the deal was publicized. Farahan paid Tavlin for the secret information about the pending deal — including a $25,000 kickback about a year later —according to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who sentenced Tavlin Monday, also ordered Tavlin to pay a special assessment fee of $1,100 – or $100 per each count. Frank did not impose a fine.



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Charges detail assault in Minneapolis that led to shooting rampage, killing one in Kandiyohi County

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Another friend of the ex-girlfriend arrived to help. He pulled up in a car as the group exited the apartment and Matariyeh immediately pointed a gun at him before pounding on the windshield with the gun. Everyone fled as Matariyeh ran back inside the apartment.

The two men met in a parking lot before attempting to return to the apartment. That’s when they looked up and saw Matariyeh on the balcony. Matariyeh immediately began firing multiple shots at them as they took cover behind parked cars.

It was around this time that Minneapolis police officers arrived and made contact with Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend. She believed he was still inside the apartment, but officers later learned that he had fled. They reached him on the phone. He told officers he was going to kill innocent people if he couldn’t speak with his ex-girlfriend or see his daughter, who was at daycare at the time. He later told police negotiators that “he wanted to go out by ‘suicide by cop.’”

All the while, Matariyeh was speeding westbound.

Police officers pursued him near Cosmos in Meeker County after being alerted that Matariyeh might have stolen another vehicle at gunpoint in Carver County.

Around 2 p.m. he pulled into the rural driveway of Peter Mayerchak in Lake Lillian. Mayerchak, who was in his yard placing hay over his septic mound, went and greeted Matariyeh, who shot him in the chest.



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DFL’s last-minute push to keep their trifecta

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Mixing progressive dreams with dire warnings, a group of DFL leaders riled up a group of volunteers in St. Paul on Thursday morning, urging them to push on through the day’s freezing rain and fatigue in the remaining days before the election.

Several elected officials including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the group of about 150 campaign staffers, volunteers and union members about how meaningful their work is to keeping DFL control of the Legislature, as the electeds start a statewide bus tour to turn out votes.

“We are here to keep our trifecta here in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told volunteers on Thursday. “We’ve got five days, people!”

On the Republican side, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said earlier this month that the House Republican Campaign Committee had raised a record $2.7 million ahead of the election and she said Republicans have also set records in volunteering and door-knocking as they work to break DFL control.

Minnesota Democrats hold a rally before starting a bus tour around the state to get voters excited, including Rep Ilhan Omar, Sen Amy Klobuchar, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Rep Betty McCollum and Sen Tina Smith on Thursday. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

“Republicans have the momentum and resources heading into the final stretch to win the majority and restore balance to Minnesota,” Demuth said in a statement. “Minnesotans are ready to move on from the expensive two years of Democrat one-party rule.”

House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she thought voters preferred action to the gridlock of divided government. “They’re looking for people who can get things done,” she said.

These last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts come as Democrats around the country push to keep control of state legislative chambers and try to flip a few statehouses that Republicans hold by just a few seats.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the national Democratic party that works on statehouse races across the country, has spent $500,000 on Minnesota races this year, including House races and the state Senate contest.



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