Star Tribune
Minnesota schools ask voters to pay more for technology
Voters in more than 30 Minnesota school districts will decide this fall whether to give schools more money and, in many cases, the ask from districts is a “tech levy” — more taxpayer dollars to fund technology upgrades for teaching and security measures.
“The state does not provide a dedicated funding stream, really, for technology,” said Scott Croonquist, the executive director of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts. “Technology is ubiquitous for schools, and it has become even more important since the pandemic.”
Half of the metro area school districts with referendums this fall — including Minneapolis, Robbinsdale, Shakopee and Burnsville-Eagan-Savage — are seeking renewed or increased funding for technology. Brooklyn Center and Rockford schools are going for 10-year tech levies for the first time.
Others, including Rochester, Farmington, Fridley and Prior-Lake-Savage, have more general operating referendums on the ballot, meant to help cover costs of ongoing, day-to-day expenses.
“The operating referendums in the past were meant to help fill in some gaps and do some extra things,” said Gary Lee, deputy executive director of the Minnesota School Boards Association. “Right now, the operating referendums are being used just to stay flush, just to balance the budget.”
The DFL-controlled Legislature approved a sweeping education bill in 2023 that gave schools more than $2 billion for new spending, but much of it was earmarked for specific programs, including free school meals. Decreasing enrollment, inflation and the recent sunsetting of pandemic relief funds mean that many cash-strapped districts are now facing cuts.
Tech levies can also provide relief for a district’s general fund that may have been used to cover technology costs. The cost to taxpayers depends on the district and home value.
In Minneapolis, voters will decide on a $20 million-a-year levy increase for technology in Minneapolis Public Schools — a move the district says would free up spending on general operations and minimize cuts to other programs and services. The ballot measure would allow the district to replace an $18 million a year capital project levy with a new $38 million a year levy to run for a decade, beginning in 2025. If approved, taxes on a $350,000 house would rise by $8 a month or $96 a year.
Nearly a dozen University of Minnesota students were arrested Monday night after trying to occupy Morrill Hall, which holds the Twin Cities campus’ administrative offices, to push the U to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Several hundred pro-Palestine protestors gathered at the Minneapolis building as Students for a Democratic Society tied up patio furniture into giant barricades, covering the building’s large front windows.
The administration has “failed to divest from genocide,” said Ryan Mattson, a sophomore, adding that the U has also passed policies restricting their First Amendment rights to protest. “We will stay here until the university meets our demands or makes us leave.”
Shortly after, university police and Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office deputies entered and arrested protesters, citing property damage. At least 11 students were arrested.
It was the first time students have broken into and attempted to occupy the building after organizing encampments last school year to call on the U to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Pro-Palestine protesters block Morrill Hall at the University of Minnesota on Monday. (Erin Adler)
The students said they chose Morrill Hall because of its history with student activism. In 1969, 70 Black students occupied the building in a peaceful 24-hour protest of institutional racism.
Before the arrests, students covered windows and staircases with mailers and green tarps. Students said they escorted administrators out of the building earlier so it didn’t appear any administrators were in the building when they blocked the entrances.
Complaints of antisemitism and Islamophobia have risen at the U and other college campuses since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel that killed an estimated 1,200 people and resulted in hundreds being taken hostage. Israel responded by invading the Gaza Strip, where the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 40,000, according to statistics released by the United Nations.
The situation didn’t reach crisis levels, however, until the costs of the school’s 2022 expansion into Burnsville wiped out STEP’s financial reserves. Its fund balance, the most critical indicator of a charter school’s financial health, fell from $2.7 million in 2022 to $54,461 in 2023, state records show. This year, the school is operating at a deficit of nearly $800,000.
In response to Ibrahim’s allegations, IQS said in a statement that its repeated interventions were aimed at ensuring the school operates within state guidelines and lives up to the promises made in its contract with the nonprofit.
“It is unfortunate that Dr. Ibrahim has made unfounded claims of racial bias,” IQS Board Chair Steve Kelley said in a statement. “He is wrong. IQS and its leadership team have acted professionally and impartially.”
Star Tribune
40-year term for ‘unprovoked’ shooting that killed new high school grad at Brooklyn Park party
A Bayport man received a 40-year term Monday for shooting and killing a new high school graduate at a party in Brooklyn Park last year.
Daniel Martez Walker, 32, was sentenced in Hennepin County District Court after jurors convicted him last month of second-degree intentional murder and being a felon in possession of a gun in connection with the death of Reese Crenshaw, 19, of Roseville, on June 2, 2023.
“This was a callous act of unprovoked violence,” a post-sentencing statement from County Attorney Mary Moriarty read.
With credit for time in jail since his arrest, Walker is expected to serve nearly 26 years in prison and the balance on supervised release.
According to Minnesota court records, Walker has a lengthy criminal history that includes five convictions for burglary, and one each for robbery, weapons possession and disorderly conduct.
According to the charges:
Crenshaw was freestyle rapping at a card table with Walker and others. Walker stood up without provocation and shot Crenshaw with a handgun. Walker fled the scene, and two witnesses took Crenshaw to the hospital. Another witness said Crenshaw was “just sitting there, not even talking,” before he was shot, the charges read.
