1971
Charges of salary discrimination based on sex were dropped by the first woman on the Robbinsdale police force after the City Council made her a bonafide member of the force and included her in salary negotiations. Mrs. Robert Meredith ( Does anybody know her first name?) Told the Minneapolis Star that she wasn’t arguing about the money, it was the discrimination of not even being formally listed in the department. Police chief George Roope eliminated the classification “clerk-dispatcher(female)” with City Council approval. The elimination of her classification did not increase her wage. Mrs. Meredith was hired at $450 per month. The Council granted her a $66 increase after she protested gross inequities based solely on sex. Two men hired later than she was were making $681 per month at the time. Despite the wage discrepancy Mrs. Meredith told the paper the salary and the change in her classification were acceptable to all parties.
In September Robbinsdale’s housing and redevelopment Authority proposed a 160 unit moderate income apartment building for a site, occupied by a ball park, bounded by Robin Lane, Lake Drive and Lake Road. Neighboring home owners claimed that a high rise would stick out like a sore thumb in their neighborhood of one and two story homes. They formed a “Save Lake Park” group and rallied to preserve the baseball diamond.
Dissatisfied with traditional scheduling, but not quite ready for flexible modular scheduling, the Robbinsdale High School administration invented a new animal called “optional block scheduling”. The unique system replaced six 55 minute periods with eight 40 minute periods. Students took five to seven subjects.
Minneapolis school officials proposed an inter-district busing idea. The people of the Robbinsdale school district got a chance to register their feelings about the proposal that students be bused to and from Minneapolis to create a racial balance in both cities. About 800 people turned out for a hearing on the subject. The vast majority did not see desegregation as a necessary part of education. Golden Valley rejected a similar busing proposal. On December 6th the Robbinsdale School Board met an the consensus was that mandatory busing would not be in the best interest of the district.
The oldest school building in Robbinsdale was demolished to make way for a new 3.5 million dollar, thirty-five classroom addition to Robbinsdale Junior High. The Parker School, later known as the Robbinsdale Public School was built in 1890. The building was expanded several times and served the community as an elementary school, junior high school and Robbinsdale School District offices.
This post is part of a series loosely based on the book Robbinsdale Then and Now by Helen Blodgett.