Minneapolis school board members appear to favor Goar for superintendent

by MinnPost staff 11/20/201511/20/2015

Courtesy of Minneapolis Public SchoolsMichael Goar

Minnesotans’ favorite people are the people they already know. In the Star Tribune, Alejandra Matos has an update on Minneapolis Public Schools’ superintendent search: “Board members Jenny Arneson, Carla Bates, Josh Reiminitz, Don Samuels and Siad Ali preferred interim Superintendent Michael Goar over all five other candidates to lead the Minneapolis district. … The board used a ‘matrix’ sheet to select three superintendent finalists Wednesday, and the Star Tribune requested each board member’s worksheet from the school district. The nine elected board members and one student representative ranked each person against the others. … Despite the majority of the board selecting Goar over all the other candidates, he currently does not have unanimous backing.”

Taking the “excess of caution” thing way too far. Tonya Alanez of the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports: “The incident that caused a Spirit Airlines jet to return to Fort Lauderdale shortly after taking off for Minneapolis is being called a misunderstanding by a passenger about a conversation that was overheard, the Broward Sheriff’s Office said on Friday. … Spirit Flight 596, an Airbus A320 carrying 92 passengers and six crew members took off about 10:09 p.m. Thursday. … A short time later it returned to Fort Lauderdale’s airport after a passenger was overheard possibly making mention of a bomb, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. … Yaniv Abotbul, 38, who was flying to Minneapolis for business, is the man whose actions sparked the misunderstanding. … Abotbul, the father of two, was born and raised in Israel, has been in this country for nine years and has been a U.S. citizen for two years. He lives in Aventura and usually flies to Minnesota, where he owns clothing stores, about twice per week. … ‘It’s devastating and very hard to know I have to pay a price for my appearance,’ Abotbul said.”

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They may be all right at winning football games, but the Vikings are great at winning public funds. The Star Tribune’s Janet Moore reports on our latest wise investment: “A $9.65 million pedestrian bridge linking the new Vikings stadium to the Downtown East light-rail station was approved by the Metropolitan Council on Wednesday, but the controversial decision left some members of the regional planning body stewing. … ‘This is an unconscionable use of our limited transit capital,’ said Met Council Member Jennifer Munt. Her council colleague Gail Dorfman agreed: ‘I can think of better uses for our public dollars than subsidizing the Vikings.’ ”

Hey, had you heard that Edina is wealthy? Like, really wealthy, Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s Sam Black reports: “Edina’s 55424 ZIP code is the most affluent in Minnesota by a long shot, and it’s the 51st-most affluent in the country, according to a new nationwide study of census data by The Business Journals. The research ranks ZIP codes using an affluence score calculated by several factors, such as income, education levels and home values. … The next closest Minnesota ZIP code in the ranking was 55439, also in Edina, which ranked 274th nationally, followed by 55391 in Wayzata (450th in the nation). … Edina’s 55424 outranked places like Lake Forest, Ill. (59); Stamford, Conn. (92); Bel Air, Calif. (99); Beverly Hills, Calif. (207); and anywhere in Arizona, Colorado, Michigian, Ohio, Oregon or Wisconsin.”