Closing referral disparities (resolution agreement with Office of Civil Rights)

Collaborators 

Lead Organization: Rochester Public Schools

Contact: Afolabi Runsewe ; Email: afrunsewe@rochester.k12.mn.us ; Phone: 507-328-4300

Known/Likely Collaborators: RPS Racial Equity Advisory Team (Community Focus Team) ; Rochester Public Schools ; Rochester for Justice ; United Way of Southeast Minnesota

Potential Collaborators: Diversity Council ; Mediation & Conflict Solutions ; NAACP, Rochester Chapter

Related Projects

Collaborative Leadership Fellow Program ; Developing and Executing on Cradle to Career Plan ; Diversity Council Civic Equity Focus Area ; OpenBeam Activating Technologies Project ; Prenatal to Age 3 Network ; Rochester Public Schools Strategic Plan

Impacts 

Major Impact:  Diversity and Inclusion

PlanScape Impacts :

Level 1: Children & Youth, Diversity and Inclusion, Education

Level 2: African American, Asian American and Pacific Islander, Latino, C2C: 3rd Grade Reading, C2C: 8th Grade Math, C2C: Post-Secondary, C2C: Workforce Participation

DMC Impacts:

Community Health Impacts:

Type of Project

Planning, Programming  

2022-08-07 Beam Comments:

This project appeared to beome a component of the RPS's 2022 Strategic Plan. 

Agreement with MDHR

Link => 2011 RPS Office of Civil Right Discipline Disparity Data

RPS and OCR Agreement on Action Plan

More Info

Misc Community Focus Team Activities

2018-07-22

Link to July CFT Data Subgroup Status

2018-06-03:

Community Focus Team (Data Sub-group) recommendations on data presentation.

According to the district’s data, suspensions increased from 1,224 in 2021-22 to 1,523 in 2022-23, representing a jump of 24.4%."

RPS 2021-2022 Monitoring Reports

2018-2019 Report presented to RPS school board and comparison with 2018 reporting. 

"The district is at various points of implementing PBIS at each school, but having more consistency will better allow the district to evaluate efforts, including its latest employee training in ENVoY, a nonverbal communication technique to influence students in the classroom."

At 2017-04-19 RPS School Board Meeting the following decision was made to enhance the effectiveness of School Board's Community Engagement Committee and RPS's Community Focus Team: deploy a design team (steering committee) to co-facilitate going forward.

In August 2016, the Community Focus Team brought forward a set of recommendations. Questions from the community: What has happened since then and how do we get engaged?

4 main areas to make progress toward education equity.

Great RPS: Equity in Family Engagement Meeting. Following are some notes. 

Great Lakes Equity Center has identified 6 barriers for equity progress.

After attending the January 7 2016 RPS community meeting, I took the time to review the slide deck handed out by RPS at the meeting and found myself asking a number of questions. 

 The Rochester Public School District is taking the first steps to address a disproportionate disciplinary rate for black and Hispanic students. A community engagement session to get input and solicit involvement from community members will be held at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 7 at Riverside Elementary School. I believe that conversation is necessary but not sufficient. We need to follow up with actions. Here is a 5+1 action plan.

The Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) is thrilled to announce the launch of CAAL Ignite, a new grant program offering $10,000–$15,000 to individuals, nonprofits, and small businesses in Minnesota’s Asian American community.

Mayo Clinic re-names its diversity and inclusion office as ‘Office of Belonging’ 

Breathing Study: Enhancing Brain and Mental Health through Breathing Practice

 Apr 2025 Mayor's YouTube Rochester Voices Channel  

Mar 2025: City of Rochester Mayor Kim Norton to attend the National League of Cities (NLC) 2025 Congressional City Conference in Washington, D.C. from March 8-12, 2025.

City of Rochester Mayor Kim Norton to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) 93rd Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C.

"Building relationships of trust with community members"

Post Bulletin Reporting

PB Reporting

Results Report with links to raw data and Copilot AI analyses

City Council Study Session

Collider Cup

Collider Incubator

Mar 2025 Newsletter: End birthright citizenship?

Apr 2024 Braver Angels Newsletter: 2024 National Convention; National Debate: Should we be colorblind?

Listen to (and learn from) the other side

2. Rochester Sister City Application (Roles and Responsibilities)

3. Sister Cities Relationship Logs

4. IRC Meeting Logs

The City of Rochester and Mayor Kim Norton are excited to once again participate in the League of Minnesota Cities’ (LMC) annual Mayor for a Day Essay Contest.  

The Juneteenth Experience Event at Mayo Civic 

Presentation, Memo and Video Recording