Gophers football coach P.J. Fleck spoke from his heart after the 23-10 season-opening win over Buffalo on Thursday.

His nearly 3-minute opening statement didn’t have anything to do football; he wanted to address the mass shooting that killed two children and injured 18 at Annunciation Catholic Church in south Minneapolis on Wednesday.

“We’ve been through a demonic tragedy over the past few days, and that’s felt by every single person in our city, in our state,” Fleck said. “I’m a husband and a father first, so are our coaches. Our players are sons. And I think I speak for everyone when we say that our thoughts, our hearts, our prayers are with every single family that is going through an unthinkable, horrific tragedy. Unimaginable.”

The Gophers football team discussed the tragedy after the win at Huntington Bank Stadium.

“We said that we’re playing for so many more people than just our locker room and our fans,” Fleck continued. “We’re playing to give hope to people, for maybe a minute.”

Fleck created his “Row the Boat” mantra after the death of his infant son, Colt, passed away to a heart condition in 2011. It remains a part of his program at Minnesota.

“Row The Boat is about putting your oar back in the water and rowing,” Fleck said. “And that’s what this community and the state has always been about. That’s why I have fallen in love, and (my wife) Heather has fallen in love with this community and this state.”

Then Fleck’s voice cracked.

“It’s unthinkable to know what those families are going through,” he continued. “And I’m sure that this doesn’t make anybody feel any better, but I truly hope that we brought a little glimpse of hope with our backs against the wall, to our city where they can excel for a minute and smile with a Gopher football win.”

Fleck stopped short of offering specific solutions to the tragedy.

“I’m not a politician, nor do I act as one, but there’s a lot of things that need to happen and should happen, and we need to hold people accountable to make sure that happens,” he said. “These are our kids. So I’ll leave it at that, and just know that we’re thinking about all of you.”

Related Articles

Gophers pull away for a 23-10 win over Buffalo in season opener

Gophers defensive depth hit by absences in season opener

Gophers to pay Buffalo $1.45 million to play season opener

Get to know new Gophers quarterback Drake Lindsey 

Gophers football: 22 former players make NFL rosters

Student proficiency levels in math and reading stayed relatively flat since last year, according to results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests.

Statewide, 45.2% of students met or exceeded standards in math and 49.6% met or exceeded standards in reading, both slightly down from the previous year.

Last year’s test results showed 45.5% of Minnesota students reached grade-level standards in math, while 49.9% tested as proficient in reading.

Science test results will be released in the fall, after the first year of instruction following newly revised academic standards, according to officials with the state Department of Education.

Consistent attendance rates improved this year and have been trending up since 2022. Statewide, 75.5% of students attended at least 90% of the time in the 2023-2024 school year compared to 74.5% in the 2022-23 school year.

St. Paul Public Schools

In St. Paul Public Schools, students’ overall scores improved slightly from those of last year. About 26.6% of students scored proficient in math and 34.8% were proficient in reading. Last year about 26% scored proficient in math while 34.1% were proficient in reading.

Those percentages are based only on students who take the test and receive a valid score. Students who don’t receive a valid score are those who don’t take the test, including those who opt-out or are absent.

For SPPS, 90% of eligible students tested in math and 92% tested in reading.

“We have seen a slight increase in our reading scores and a slight increase in our math scores,” said Andrew Collins, SPPS executive chief of schools. “It’s also kind of very apparent and clear to us that our focus needs to continue to be on, again, our student outcomes and ensuring that each and every one of our students has a strong academic performance and experience in St. Paul Public Schools and that continues to be our focus and our priority.”

Effort to improve attendance

Meanwhile, in the past school year 12 districts participated in a pilot program to improve attendance and state officials are working with those districts to identify which efforts have been most effective, said Michael Diedrich, an education policy specialist with the state Department of Education.

In addition to increased attendance rates, state officials also saw some small decreases in proficiency gaps between different student demographics.

“We’re seeing faster increases for most of our populations of color, for English learners, for students in special education, students eligible for free and reduced price meals,” Diedrich said. “Similarly, when we look at testing data for many of those groups, we are seeing faster rates of growth for students of color and other groups than we are seeing for the state overall. So we are seeing signs that we’re seeing some small closure of gaps over time.”

Other initiatives

Other ongoing education initiatives include the READ Act, signed into law in 2023, teacher recruitment and retention programs and COMPASS, a statewide system to support schools in areas such special education and English language learning.

The READ Act aims to have all Minnesota children reading at or above grade level every year and to support multilingual learners and students receiving special education services in their individualized reading goals.

Teachers and instructional support staff began receiving reading instruction training in July 2024, with districts requesting training for more than 30,000 teachers as of January.

Third graders included in Friday’s data entered kindergarten prior to the passage of the READ Act, according to state officials.

Students take the reading and math MCA tests in third through eighth grades and once in high school. Science testing is done in fifth and eighth grades and once in high school.

 

 

“Everyone really needs some love right now.”

Those were the words of Daryl Hall as he addressed a relatively slight audience of 3,217 at the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand. He knew that he had arrived in a state that’s in a lot of pain after Wednesday’s shooting at a Minneapolis church. So he and his six-piece backing band set out to deliver a set full of sweetness, their bouncy pop built on foundations of funky grooves and the kind of catchy choruses ideal for communal sing-alongs.

Add an inspiring opening set from the Rascals — a vintage rhythm-and-blues-based band whose heyday preceded that of Hall and his former partner, John Oates, by about 15 years — and you have an uplifting show, an evening of sonic salve that deserved a considerably more substantial audience.

Hall and his band stepped in on short notice when the Steve Miller Band canceled its Grandstand show, but it was the audience’s good fortune that the original warmup act, the Rascals, stayed on the bill.

The lone original Rascal was the band’s principal singer and co-songwriter, keyboardist Felix Cavaliere. It was he who set the tone for the evening by addressing the local population’s sorrow before his band played a note, offering consolation in words and in a touching choice for an opening song, “A Ray of Hope,” which Cavaliere and co-Rascal Eddie Brigati wrote to encourage equality advocates disheartened by the killing of Martin Luther King Jr.

At age 82, Cavaliere still has his distinctive rough-edged tenor, which may not still hit all the notes, but the eight-piece band (including three horns) did remarkable justice to such soulful fare as “Groovin’,” “People Got to Be Free” and an exhilarating finale of “Good Lovin’.”

And the 78-year-old Hall proved a fine fit to follow them to the stage, as he was a product of the Philadelphia R&B scene. Sure, his tenor voice can’t soar as high and clearly as it once did, but Hall worked around it by allowing his bandmates to sing the choruses of familiar Hall and Oates tunes while he wound improvisations around them, a tactic from the gospel tradition.

There was a string of Hall and Oates chart toppers from the early ‘80s — “Maneater,” “Kiss on My List,” “Private Eyes,” “Rich Girl” and an extended pre-encore jam on “I Can’t Go for That” — but Hall’s passion really emerged on a pair of songs from his solo albums, “Walking in Between Raindrops” and an homage to the music of his youth, “I’m in a Philly Mood,” which he introduced by favorably comparing Philadelphia and Minneapolis as cities that have each produced a unique R&B sound.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

Police in Oak Park Heights arrested a teen who brought a BB gun to the Stillwater Area High School football game on Thursday night.

Students told officers at the game about the young man around 8:30 p.m. after hearing him talk about having a gun, Superintendent Mike Funk wrote in a letter sent to families on Thursday night.

“Officers quickly located the individual, who was found to be carrying a BB gun,” Funk wrote. “The person, who is not from our school community, was taken into custody at the scene.”

A 17-year-old fled on foot from officers after they approached him, but was quickly arrested and taken to the Washington County jail in Stillwater, said Oak Park Heights Police Chief Steve Hansen. “The students reported to law enforcement that there was a verbal altercation involving the suspect male,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation, he said.

The incident occurred a day after a shooter opened fire Wednesday through the windows of Assumption Catholic Church in Minneapolis, killing two children and wounding 18 people celebrating Mass during the first week of school.

“We recognize that in light of this week’s tragedy, this situation was especially frightening,” Funk wrote. “We are deeply grateful for the swift action of our students, who spoke up right away, and for the rapid response of our local law enforcement. Because of their efforts, the situation was resolved quickly and safely.”

The Ponies lost to the Maple Grove Crimson, 37-17.

Related Articles

Woodbury charter school coach arrested for child solicitation

Woodbury teen’s Girl Scout project spurred by father’s heart attack

Former Oak Park Heights City Council member Mark Swenson to fill vacancy

Afton City Council Zoom meeting hijacked by digital porn

St. Croix Chocolate Co. in Marine on St. Croix has been sold