A comprehensive study by the Minnesota Department of Health shows that many of the state’s schools, particularly those who serve more low-income families, don’t have a licensed school nurse.

The “Minnesota School Nurse Workforce: A 2022 Snapshot” report analyzed data from 94% of the public and charter schools in the state.

“This is the first time we’ve had such a comprehensive data picture about school nurses and health services staff in Minnesota,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Health Dr. Brooke Cunningham in a release about the report. “What we’ve learned is students in smaller districts, charter schools, and schools that serve more families with lower incomes just aren’t getting that same access to a school nurse as other students in Minnesota.”

Findings

The survey found concerning differences between districts. In the 162 school districts where 40% or more of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, students were three times less likely to have access to nursing or health services than other schools.

The study found that slightly under half of Minnesota school districts, 49%, employ a licensed school nurse, or LSN. To be a licensed school nurse in Minnesota requires a bachelor’s degree in nursing and current registration through the Board of Nursing as both a licensed registered nurse and a public health nurse.

Most of those LSNs are working in larger districts, since a state law requires districts with more than 1,000 students, about 34% of the state’s districts, to employ a licensed school nurse. The report says 93% of the districts covered by that law did have a fully licensed school nurse, but only 26% of districts below that threshold did, meaning that students’ access to care at school varied significantly.

Some schools that did not employ an LSN still had a registered nurse or licensed practical nurse working in the district, but at 26% of Minnesota’s schools, there were no staff fully dedicated to students’ health care.

“Access to quality health care is critical for students in Minnesota, no matter their ZIP code,” said Minnesota Commissioner of Education Willie Jett. “School nurses play an important role in the overall health and well-being of our young people.”

Funding

The study’s recommendations included requests for more thorough and regular data on school nurses, and better strategies to fund smaller districts and those with higher student needs. And since the data was collected in 2022, funding has changed.

“During the past two legislative sessions, Governor Tim Walz and the Minnesota Legislature made significant investments in school support personnel – including school nurses. Investments included $74 million in the ’24-25 biennium and $127 million in the ’26-27 biennium to support hiring new or increasing current school counselors, psychologists, social workers and licensed school nurses,” the release said.

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High-end gyms are no longer just places to sweat it out.

The most exclusive ones offer not only state-of-the-art equipment, exercise classes and spacious locker rooms with cold eucalyptus-scented towels and fancy soaps but also “third places,” locations outside home and work where people can mingle and socialize. That means gyms are now also recreational centers and event spaces, salons and spas, hotels and workspaces. And they’re child care facilities.

At Chelsea Piers in New York, the sports and entertainment complex along the Hudson River, members can get work done before, in between or after workouts at the gym’s lounge and coworking space, which opens up to a 44-foot ceiling and waterfront view. The gym also hosts events, such as author talks and creative classes and workshops, for members.

At Life Time, a gym chain headquartered in Chanhassen that calls its branches a “country club” version of a health club, members can drop off their child before a workout for a fee and can get a private office or a dedicated Herman Miller desk at locations with coworking space, called Life Time Work.

People working near pickleball courts on the first floor at Life Time, a luxury gym at Pennsylvania Plaza in Midtown, New York, Thursday, June 12, 2024. High-end gyms, many of which used to be an amenity, are now the star attraction, offering hotel rooms and workspaces as part of their appeal. They’ve also gotten a lot bigger. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)

A Life Time Work membership, available at their St. Louis Park, Edina and downtown Minneapolis locations in the Twin Cities, includes gym access and will cost you a couple of hundred dollars to thousands per month, depending on what kind of workspace you want and the location.

Gyms, many of which used to be an amenity attached to a hotel or an office building, have now become the star attraction, offering hotel rooms and workspaces as part of their appeal. These kinds of amenities require a lot of space — and a shaky commercial real estate sector with high vacancies has opened up opportunities for big gyms.

Gym facilities have a history of occupying unused properties and spaces. They can extend into spaces not traditionally desirable in the real estate world, using windowless rooms below street level as locker rooms or spaces for group exercise classes. Chelsea Piers took advantage of unused piers on the west side of Manhattan to build its 150,000-square-feet flagship complex in 1995, equipped with a six-lane, 75-foot pool; a rock wall; and three basketball courts.

Life Time Work

Life Time started in Minnesota in 1992 and now has 1.4 million paying members and over 200 locations across the country, mostly in the suburbs. It took over 54,000 square feet at its Penn 1 location in midtown Manhattan, more than enough space for its seven pickleball courts and cafelike seating area and bar, where members can have beers and other beverages on tap and watch one another play. Its other New York locations average about 41,000 square feet. Its first Life Time Work in New York is coming next year to the Brooklyn Tower, which will also offer a 110,000-square-foot space to sweat it out.

The pricing for the upcoming New York space has not yet been determined, but the Life Time Work in downtown Minneapolis charges $249 for a lounge membership, $500 for a desk and $1,278 for a private office. A Chelsea Piers membership starts at $220 per month in New York; the company declined to share its membership numbers.

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Long leases, smaller staff

Life Time and Chelsea Piers can get these big spaces in large part because they sign leases lasting 20 to 25 years, with options to extend at the end of their agreement term. Most commercial leases in New York are five to 15 years, and office leases can be as long as 10 years.

“When you start to see these really long lease terms or ones with extension options built into it, it’s because the developer pays some big fixed costs upfront,” said Cameron LaPoint, an assistant professor of finance at Yale School of Management. “They’re trying to mold the property in a bespoke way to the tenant.”

Life Time’s CEO, Bahram Akradi, said the company’s strategy was to “try to control 40, 50 years” in its existing spaces.

To make their vision work, Life Time reduced its corporate office staff during the pandemic and eliminated sales positions and member promotions, allowing the clubs’ amenities to speak for themselves, Akradi said.

Locker room on the third floor at Life Time, a luxury gym at Pennsylvania Plaza in Midtown, New York, Thursday, June 12, 2024. High-end gyms, many of which used to be an amenity, are now the star attraction, offering hotel rooms and workspaces as part of their appeal. They’ve also gotten a lot bigger. (Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times)

Life Time and other high-end gyms have rebounded after hard times during the pandemic when membership rates plummeted and 25% of all health clubs and studios closed in 2021, according to industry group National Health & Fitness Alliance.

Whether developers will continue spending big on gyms, however, is hard to predict, LaPoint said, especially with leases extending decades into the future. One area of concern is stubborn inflation, said Chris Hudgins, a research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence. He pointed to high membership fees as potential pain points.

But for Akradi, business was going so well that “when you look at our 2024 and 2025 numbers,” referring to membership rates and sales from in-gym purchases, it would seem the pandemic “never happened.”

“We reinvented the business during that time, and it is substantially better than it used to be,” he said.

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The Saints continued to make history on Sunday at CHS Field, only this time it was a record they could have done without.

After extending their winning streak to a franchise-best 11 games on Saturday, the Saints set a team mark for runs allowed in a game in a 20-9 loss to the Toledo Mud Hens.

“They always end funny,” Saints manager Toby Gardenhire said of the winning streak. “You never know how it is going to go. Sometimes you get walked off, sometimes you give up a
hundred runs. We gave up a hundred.”

Saints starting pitcher Louie Varland had a miserable afternoon, allowing 12 runs — 11 earned — in 2 1/3 innings. The Mud Hens touched him up for 11 hits, including five home runs.

After Varland gave up the three runs in the first inning on a pair of home runs, he was given a reprieve when the Saints scored five times in their half of the inning. But Varland gave up two more home runs in the Mud Hens’ five-run second.

Varland declined to speak with reporters after the game.

“I got nothing for you guys today,” he said as he left the clubhouse. “Too emotional.”

Gardenhire wasn’t surprised.

“Any time you have a start like that — for a guy like Louie, who has been so good — you’re going to be emotional,” Gardenhire said. “It’s not easy for these guys. This is their job, this is what they live to do.

“You’re only pitching once a week, and when you go out there and have a tough one like this, it’s going to be tough.”

Saints pitching coach Pete Larson said Varland’s location of his pitches was not an issue.

“He threw strikes, he got ahead of guys,” Larson said. “They got the better end of it today. They came out swinging and they didn’t really miss.”

Added Gardenhire: “Everybody’s due for a tough one once in a while. They were on just about everything he threw. We were hoping he could figure it out for a couple innings and end on a high note, but it just didn’t happen.”

Varland made his first start since having two solid outings with the Twins, which made Sunday’s performance all the more surprising.

“It was awesome to see him have success up there,” Larson said. “He needed that after the little bit of a rough start he had at the beginning of the year. And everything he’s been working on here, he threw up there, and it was well executed.

“So we’ll adjust on the game plan and move forward next week.”

The Mud Hens did most of their damage in the first four innings, scoring three in the first, five in the second, four in the third and seven in the fourth. They put a quick end to any thoughts the Saints had of sweeping a second straight six-game series.

But the Saints left for their last road trip eager to string some wins together, and they likely exceeded their own expectations by winning 11 in a row.

“We got some guys healthy, we got some guys back,” Gardenhire said. “And we’ve got some guys swinging the bat well. It was fun. You don’t get many streaks where you win 11 games in a row.

“But we were going on all cylinders for a long time — pretty much the whole road trip in Louisville and then the whole homestand until today. Everything was great. Hopefully, one game
like this won’t be a complete setback.”

Briefly

Burnsville native Aaron Rozek, just called up from Double-A Wichita, replaced Varland and surrendered six runs in 1 1/3 innings of work. … Second baseman Edouard Julien, who has struggled offensively since being sent down by the Twins, reached based five times, with three walks, a double and a single.

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OAKLAND, Calif. — Rocco Baldelli was hesitant to reveal too many of the details before the game, but, he said, Pablo López had a meaningful week in between starts working on a couple of mechanical tweaks.

“I think he had some real pointed ideas about what he was trying to accomplish in between his outings,” Baldelli said before the game.

Mission accomplished.

López, who entered the day with a 9.69 ERA in the month of June, was simply spectacular on Sunday. The starter retired the first 17 batters of the game before allowing a hit, dominating the Oakland Athletics in the Twins’ 3-0 win in the series finale at the Oakland Coliseum.

With the way he was throwing, it looked as if López had a serious chance to write his name into the history books. But with two outs in the sixth inning, after striking out the first two batters of the inning, Lawrence Butler lined a single to right, disrupting López’s bid for perfection.

He allowed just two hits in his eight-inning effort and struck out 14 batters, matching his career high. In the process, he fanned every single Athletics (29-51) batter.

With his pitch count at 102, López did not get the chance to finish off the game, as Bailey Ober did a day before. But eight innings of sheer dominance worked just fine for the Twins (43-35).

López pitched with a lead for much of the day after Byron Buxton hit his fifth home run of the season in the second inning off lefty Hogan Harris.

Harris kept the Twins mostly quiet for much of the game before running into trouble in the seventh. Carlos Santana and Willi Castro started the inning with back-to-back singles before Buxton brought home the team’s second run of the game with a double.

The Twins scored another run on Kyle Farmer’s fielder’s choice, and those three runs were more than enough offensive support for López and Griffin Jax, who completed the shutout with a scoreless ninth for his seventh save.

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