ENG 2025-26 Family Update No. 6

⏰ Reading time: four minutes, 48 seconds

Dear Northfield Public Schools Families:

It has been a festive week across all of our schools, filled with Raider pride, as we celebrate homecoming.

One of my favorite homecoming activities is the spirit bus. NHS student athletes, the pep band, and other student leaders visit each school for a pepfest. It is an excellent way to connect all of our K-12 students.

Along with Homecoming, we celebrate the induction of new members into the NHS Athletics Hall of Fame. This year, Sarah (Parrott) Mitchell, Kristin (Ophaug) England, Sam Maus, Brian Nystuen, Neil Touchette, and the 2010 and 2011 State Champions Gymnastics teams will be inducted.

The inductees will be honored at halftime of tonight’s football game (Oct. 3) and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame tomorrow (Oct. 4) in the NHS auditorium, beginning at 10 am. Both events will be broadcast by Northfield Live.

As always, do not hesitate to contact me with feedback or questions about the school district.

Sincerely,

Matt

--

Matt Hillmann, Ed.D.

Superintendent
mhillmann@northfieldschools.org | 507-663-0629

The NHS RALIE team is launching a community-wide process to seek submissions for a new Raider image. Here are the details: NHS is looking for a new image to represent the Raiders. Everyone; students, community members, teachers, are encouraged to get involved. Original artwork will be submitted via Google Form. Submitted images and artwork are subject to editing as part of the process to best represent the Raiders.

Guidelines for creators:

1. Original artwork.

2. The image will be free of violence, racism, or harassment.

3. The image will represent ALL.

4. The image will contain NHS school colors.

Other things to consider:

1. The image should be unique to NHS, specifically from other Big 9 schools.

2. The image transfers well to sports apparel.

NHS will still be called the RAIDERS & will still use the NHS N.

» You can view the form that will be used to collect the images here.

While we don’t want to think about it quite yet, winter will arrive in Minnesota in the near future. While last year’s winter was mild and caused no school cancellations, Minnesota winter weather has been known to disrupt our schedule. Some key items:

• You can learn more about what goes into decisions to close school, start late, or dismiss early here.
• The first full-day closure due to weather is a true “snow day.”
• The district uses e-Learning days for the second and subsequent full-day closures. You can read the e-Learning plan here.
• You can read more about the district’s response to weather related disruptions here.

Benjamin Bus will be sending out alternate stop bus cards to affected families the week of November 3. They will only send alternate bus stop cards to families that would experience changes if alternate routes were utilized. Alternate routes are used when winter weather conditions make it unsafe to pick up students on a rural gravel road and the nearest paved roads are passable.

The cards will include approximate stop times based on a normal school start time but may vary slightly depending on weather/road conditions.

Benjamin Bus will communicate the use of alternate stops to families on individual routes via Skylert. As always, if families have questions once they receive their cards they can contact Benjamin Bus.

The district partners with KYMN radio to produce the “Doing Good Things for Kids” podcast. During the year, Superintendent Hillmann will interview members of our school community who demonstrate high performance.

In September, Northfield Superintendent of Schools Dr. Matt Hillmann talked with the district’s director of buildings and grounds, Justin Raabolle. You can listen to the podcast here.

• Board packets, table files, and meeting videos are located on our website.
• You can listen to Superintendent Hillmann’s update on KYMN radio.

At Northfield Public Schools, we value our strong community partnerships. To better connect families with local events and resources, we've created a community events newsletter. This newsletter is linked to our district newsletters, making it easy for families to stay informed about upcoming opportunities and important community resources.

This week's newsletter includes local events, as well as MEA break activities at the Northfield Public Library, and opportunities from Hiliners, Cub Scouts, the YMCA and more!

The Northfield School District does not discriminate on the basis of sex and prohibits sex discrimination in any education program or activity that it operates, as required by Title IX, including in employment. You can learn more at: https://northfieldschools.org/about/departments/human-resources/ under the Title IX tab.