Questions for DeVos

U.S. Sen. Al Franken, Minnesota, will soon have a chance to ask several questions of Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education.
That’s because Franken serves on the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Marc Kimball, state director of communications for Franken, recently confirmed in a phone call that the committee will meet with DeVos as part of her confirmation process.broadstreet.zone(48036);
Here are several issues that I hope Franken will consider raising. You may want to suggest these or others.
1. Promoting safety, respect and optimism among students.
If students are frightened, intimidated or bullied, they learn much less.
A recent national poll of more than 10,000 educators, conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center, found that since the election: “Ninety percent of educators report that school climate has been negatively affected, and most of them believe it will have a long-lasting impact. A full 80 percent describe heightened anxiety

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Winner winner turkey dinner

School Principal Ron Burris holds up a stack of bingo cards.
Lino Lakes Elementry STEM school recently held a Turkey Bingo event. Despite a snow storm, the turnout was a healthy 300 ranging from newborn babies to grandparents. School board member Dan Kieger joined the fun in agreeing to be the caller. Keiger ran approximately 10 games and even let the kids call out some of the numbers. The canned good donations from attendees as well as donated gift cards and turkeys were collected to create Thanksgiving dinners for local Forest Lake families in need. The Boy Scouts were on site selling wreaths (and also assisting in clean up) and event organizers Melissa Thibault and Katrina Bastyr organized a “Christmas cards to the troops” table to make local soldiers feel more at home overseas this Christmas.

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