Kingfield Neighborhood Association

IF This is what You Love About Kingfield, Please Show Us!

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This is Kingfield Neighborhood’s signature event and 1000’s of community members come out to enjoy our amazing neighborhood, which overflows with so much talent. Neighbors can frequently be heard saying “THIS is what I love about Kingfield!”, as they fill the streets while free music fills the air.

Well, now is where you can SHOW your LOVE for PorchFest and keep it, and the Kingfield Neighborhood Association, strong into the future. Donate now and encourage others you know who value this great community and amazing event to also support it!

For anyone who missed this event the last the past 8 years and is wondering, “What is the heck is PorchFest?” Well, PorchFest is an evening of music, community, and summer! On a single summer evening, musicians will perform acoustic music at their respective homes or at a porch location donated by a neighbor, while others stroll through the neighborhood, enjoying the sounds and talent of their neighbors.

Musicians and hosts sign up by end of the day May 16h… and everybody save the date for June 16 for a night of community talent and fun!

 

 

Seeking Adult Soccer Game Leaders & a Table Manager for Little Kickers at MLK Park

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NEEDED: ADULT GAME-LEADERS AND A TABLE MANAGER for 2022 Little Kickers Soccer Program
at M.L. King Park, Nicollet Ave. & 42nd Street
Fun Soccer Games Program for Young Children Ages 4-8

This summer, on Wednesday evenings from 6:15 to 7:30 PM, on the grass of ML King field #1, the Minneapolis Park Board and the Kingfield Neighborhood Association will again host a program for 4- through 8-year old boys and girls, of all nationalities and backgrounds. The program is designed around soccer basics and soccer balls, and lots of action. But the highest priority of the program is that the kids have fun; have fun playing games with soccer balls, and want to come back the next week, enthusiastically, to play the games with soccer balls again. Sessions start Wednesday, June 22rd, and continue through August 17th. Neither the kids, nor the Game Leader/Parent Coaches, need to be there every Wednesdays. But we need adults to commit to attend each Wednesday that you are in town, to help lead the games!

If you can imagine; dads, moms, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, (you!); joining in to play the games with your 6-year-old son, your 4-year-old daughter, and the the other 15-20 kids in their age-group, on the field. The adults are regularly invited to join in games kicking the soccer balls, and pretending with the kids for: “Ouch!”, “Allegators”, “Go Get It”, “Islands”, “Bandits”, and “Mosquito Squahers”.  There is the occasional soccer scrimmage for the older groups at the end of session, but mostly it’s about teaching soccer through these other, “silly”, games.

The Little Kickers Program uses these little-kid teaching-games, led by 2 or 3 parent-coaches trained in a bunch of the games, to groups of a dozen to 20, or so, 4-year-olds, 5-6 year-olds, and 7-8 year-olds. The games are about teaching skills and behaviors core to soccer, but the games are generally not soccer games, and we don’t do “drills”, we don’t form organized teams for the summer, and parents don’t commit to being team soccer coaches for the summer. Parent coaches don’t need to be athletes, nor need to have experience playing organized soccer; ten adults have already committed but with 100 kids on the field, we could use a dozen more! [Read more…]

5th Precinct Community listening session planned to inform search for new Minneapolis police chief

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  • 6-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 3 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park building, 4055 Nicollet

Community listening sessions are being held in each of the City’s five police precincts will help inform the search process for the next Minneapolis police chief. City Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, chair of the City Council’s Public Health & Safety Committee, is working with Mayor Jacob Frey’s office and the Mayor’s Police Chief Search Committee on the series of sessions.

The community feedback, guidance and perspective received during these sessions will be an integral piece in the creation of the position profile and will inform the entire search process for the new police chief.

A slow sap year–but that didn’t bother Kingfield’s pancake lovers!

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1st Annual Kingfield Community Pancake Breakfast was a huge success! 

The sap is running late this year, but that didn’t stop our Tapping Team from demonstrating the fire build and sap boil process to over 100 neighbors who joined in on the first annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser, supporting this great partnership and programming of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park and the Kingfield Neighborhood Association.

Sap has just really started running so be on the look-out for the boiling stoves this week to be working on the northern side of the park building near the “cabin” … and feel free to stop and say “hi” and hang out at the fire with our Tapping Team Volunteers!

Day 9: Minneapolis Teachers are still on the Strike Line

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Learn more about the ESP’s they are also fighting for in this article by MPR News.

Article by: Elizabeth Shockman, 

…The majority of Minneapolis’ ESPs are people of color and work as special education assistants, associate educators, school success program assistants and child care assistants, among other roles. The starting wage for the lowest paid of these positions is $24,000 per year. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers is asking the district to raise the starting wage to $35,000 per year. Over half of Minneapolis ESPs have second or third jobs, according to the union.

The district agrees it needs to raise ESP wages, but it is still millions of dollars apart in negotiations from what the union wants. As of Wednesday, the union was asking for a 23 to 44 percent wage bump for ESPs over two years. The district was sticking to a 9 percent wage increase over two years. *(Editor’s NOTE: a large difference in this wage request would be the movement of ESP to full-time salary employees vs the part-time status they currently have. To see details of the MFT/MSP negotiation requests visit the MFT Safe and Stable School site here.

…The Minneapolis NAACP supports the union’s push for higher ESP wages.

“This is unacceptable,” said Minneapolis NAACP president Cynthia Wilson. “Our ESPs need to be paid and our Black teachers need to be retained. Period.”

—Multiple studies have shown that educators of color can improve students’ performance. Black students see academic and graduation gains when paired with Black teachers.

In Minneapolis Public Schools, 63 percent of students are kids of color — closer to the percentage of Minneapolis ESPs than classroom teachers, nearly 80 percent of whom are white.

… The NAACP has a demand for the union, too:  The association wants more protections from layoffs for teachers of color written in the contract.