Star Tribune
Minneapolis school libraries seeing big increases in book lending
One of the posted rules for middle schoolers using the library at Franklin STEAM school in Minneapolis this year is an encouraging directive: “There is a book for you — find it.”
And the students have. More than 1,500 titles have been checked out so far this school year, representing a four-fold jump over the number of books that left the shelf by this time last school year.
“As much as I want to say I managed to shoot book checkout up 400%, it’s not because of anything incredible that I personally did,” said Ted Anderson, the school’s librarian. “It’s because I’m here and the library is actually open.”
Like a handful of other Minneapolis schools, Franklin had no library staff last year, meaning it was often closed to students.
Anderson came to the school as part of a librarian hiring wave across the district, marking a renewed investment in the positions that are often among the first to be cut when school budgets are squeezed. Minneapolis Public Schools has doubled its number of librarians since last year and met its goal of staffing at least a half-time librarian at each of its more than 60 schools.
But most worth celebrating, staff members say, is the number of books finding their way into the hands of young readers across the city. Circulation is way up in many schools — it’s doubled since last year at Nellie Stone Johnson Elementary on the Northside and also at Transitions Plus, a program for 18- to 21-year-old students with learning disabilities. Stadium View, the district’s juvenile detention program, now has a functional library that has loaned out more than 400 books.
Justice Page Middle School had a grand reopening of its library in November. According to Mandy Bellm, the district’s media content lead, the school had officially checked out just one book by this time last year. Over this past semester, Justice Page students grabbed 1,500 volumes, representing what Bellm is calling a “gazillion” percent boost in popularity.
“With libraries, there’s the analogy of a garden,” Bellm said. “Gardens take work; libraries take work. If you don’t keep them up, they can look kind of shabby and kids don’t want to be there.”
The interest from middle schoolers is especially heartening. Research suggests that the percentage of children who read for fun drops off during middle school and those percentages have continued to fall over the last few decades. A survey by the National Assessment of Educational Progress asked U.S. 9- and 13-year-olds whether they read for enjoyment. In 2020, less than half of the 9-year-olds and less than one-third of 13-year-olds said they did. Those percentages were several percentage points higher when the survey was conducted in 2012 and 1984.
Bellm and Anderson say comics are the most popular choice for preteen readers in Minneapolis. Anderson is a comic author himself and has curated an entire wall of shelves in the library for the growing collection of comic choices for his students. At least one of those shelves sits empty most of the time because so many of the books are checked out.
On a recent morning, Anderson directed students to nonfiction graphic novels about civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., shortly after checking in a high stack of other comic books returned by a classroom of sixth-graders.
“The library is a growing organism — you have to respond to the needs of what they are looking for,” Anderson said. That’s something that can only be done by a trained librarian, he said. Although volunteers stepped up last year to help staff some of the shuttered school libraries in Minneapolis, volunteers were limited as to what they could do. Ordering new books, for example, can require a library media license.
In addition to more books, many of the school libraries also got new furniture, including bean bags for students and rocking chairs and rugs for story time. That has helped create a space where students want to gather, Bellm said. A couple of schools are in the process of launching book clubs based on student demand, and other clubs are using the library as their meet-up spot.
The Franklin library is connected to the cafeteria and has become a go-to destination for many students who want to read or find a quieter spot to hang out with their friends during the lunch hour, Anderson said.
“I feel like it’s a safe space for me to enjoy,” said sixth-grader Darrell Wells. “And I’m actually finishing my books now because I can take them home.”
Sixth-grader Monroe Carlson said he is also reading more this year and often heads to the library over the lunch hour.
“To me, it’s an important place because I can come to learn what I’m curious about,” he said.
For Anderson, feeding that curiosity is what a librarian is there to do.
“If kids are actually engaging with the space and wondering about the books, that’s a success,” he said while groups of students chatted loudly in a circle of arm chairs, each with books at their sides. “The last thing you want is a quiet library.”
Star Tribune
Long Prairie, MN school board dismisses its superintendent, the latest controversy in this small town
LONG PRAIRIE, MINN. — The school district superintendent dressed up as the school mascot, Thor, on football nights. He read the graduation address in both English and Spanish. He even set up office hours in the cafeteria, granting easier approachability to students.
But now, two months into the school year, Daniel Ludvigson is gone. Or, rather, “on special assignment,” according to the terminology of the Long Prairie-Grey Eagle School Board, which voted 4-3 earlier this month to remove him as superintendent. The move came weeks after voting to not renew his contract, which expires at the end of the school year in June.
Four board members — two of whom voted to oust Ludvigson, including Board Chair Kelly Lemke — are up for re-election next week.
The dismissal is the latest blow in this central Minnesota community on the edge of the prairie. Over the last nine months, the town of 3,400 residents and seat of Todd County has lost its mayor, a city manager, two school board members, and now its superintendent.
Students walked out earlier this month in support of Ludvigson. Signs in support of Ludvigson can be seen across town on the lawns of apparent Democrats and Republicans alike. And last week, hundreds packed the American Legion off Hwy. 71 to eat beef sandwiches and sign support letters for Ludvigson, who only swung by to pick up his child for hockey practice.
In a time of great divide in America, this fight has nothing to do with politics.
“You’ve got Harris buttons and Trump hats side-by-side, arm-in-arm,” said Amanda Hinson, a former local newspaper reporter who is concerned the board is not being upfront about why they placed Ludvigson on special assignment. “We want transparency in our government.”
Lawn signs around Long Prairie, Minn., now include people weighing in on the dismissal of Superintendent Daniel Ludvigson by the school board. (Christopher Vondracek)
School board members say Ludvigson has repeatedly shown he is not ready for the prime time of a school district bigger than the one in central North Dakota he arrived from two years ago. They have twice disciplined Ludvigson, but did not state the reason for placing him on “special assignment,” beyond insinuating that staff are fearful to raise official complaints.
Rain and potentially heavy snow are on tap Thursday around the Twin Cities, just before families set out for Halloween trick-or-treating.
Temperatures were expected to drop throughout the day, creating conditions for flurries. A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. covering the Twin Cities metro area and parts of south-central Minnesota. Steady rain drenched the Twin Cities on Thursday, making for a soggy morning commute.
“As colder air begins to move in this morning, the rain will transition to heavy snow from west to east with snowfall rates of an inch per hour at times into early afternoon,” the National Weather Service in Chanhassen said in a weather advisory.
The Twin Cities and surrounding areas could get between 2 and 4 inches of snow, according to the weather service. The winter weather advisory is expected to affect Anoka, Chisago, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, Washington and Le Sueur counties.
It’s unclear how much of the snow will actually stick, with warm surface temperatures likely leading to melting on contact in many areas.
“Exact totals will depend on snowfall rate, surface temperatures, and melting — which increases uncertainty with the snow forecast,” the weather service said in an early Thursday briefing.
“Thundersnow possible!” the weather service emphasized.
The good news for Halloween revelers is that the snow and rain are expected to wrap up in time for trick-or-treating, though temperatures will remain in the 30s with a sharp windchill.
An off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy caused a head-on crash while under the influence of alcohol and injured a couple in the other vehicle, officials said.
The crash occurred about 10:40 a.m. Sunday in Afton on Hwy. 95 at Scenic Lane, the Minnesota State Patrol said.
Campbell Johnston Blair, 58, of Hastings, was heading north in his Subaru Crosstrek, crossed into the opposite lane and collided with a southbound Ford Expedition, the patrol said.
Blair and the other vehicle’s occupants, 38-year-old Erik Robert Sward and 36-year-old Heather Lynn Sward, both of Lake Elmo, were taken to Regions Hospital with non-critical injuries, according to the patrol.
The patrol noted the alcohol use by Blair was involved in the crash.
Blair, who was driving a private vehicle at the time of the crash while off-duty, has been a deputy with the Sheriff’s Office since 2020 and is currently assigned to our Court Security Unit.
The Sheriff’s Office has been asked for reaction to the crash involving one of its deputies.