The Forest Lake Area School Board is moving forward with two major changes next year to address a drop in enrollment.

The school board last week voted unanimously to have all district sixth-grade students, currently enrolled in six of the district’s seven elementary schools, moved to Forest Lake Area Middle School, creating a school for grades 6-8.

This year, the district has 427 sixth graders. Superintendent Steve Massey said the changes will provide sixth-grade students with “expanded learning time in core academic areas, expanded opportunities in the arts and exposure to career gateway courses.”

District officials also voted to consolidate Forest View Elementary School and Forest Lake Elementary School. The schools, which are next door to one another, are currently partner schools: Forest View Elementary School, built in 1968, serves 330 students in grades kindergarten through third grades and also houses preschool programming, and Forest Lake Elementary School, built in 1957, serves 314 students in grades fourth through sixth.

The schools became partner schools in the 2010-2011 school year; Forest View went to K-3, and Forest Lake went to 4-6.

Plans call for Forest Lake Elementary School to close next fall, and all students will attend Forest View Elementary.

The consolidation of the two elementary schools will allow the district to “maximize operational opportunities,” while retaining the district’s tradition of community-based elementary schools, Massey said.

The district has lost about 1,000 students over the past 10 years.

— Mary Divine

Charges dismissed in slaying at Quarry

A case against a Columbia Heights man accused of fatally shooting a 19-year-old outside a Target store in Northeast Minneapolis has been dismissed.

Barqalde Abdullahi Barqadle, 21, faced second-degree unintentional murder in the Jan. 15 killing at the Quarry shopping center parking lot along New Brighton Boulevard off Stinson Boulevard. Authorities have not released the victim’s name.

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office dismissed the criminal complaint last week, with a prosecutor writing in a court document, “The State cannot prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt at this time.” A jury trial was scheduled to begin this week.

Barqadle told police the man “was acting crazy and playing with a gun,” then shot himself in the chest, according to the criminal complaint.

Police discovered Barqadle’s hoodie “had been blown apart and there appeared to be a bullet hole in his jacket, suggesting that the gun was fired from inside the hoodie pocket with the bullet going through his coat and into” the victim, the complaint continued.

Investigators learned the Glock 9mm gun was also involved in the New Year’s Day fatal shooting of Abdifatah Abdillahi, 23, of Roseville, in St. Paul’s Hamline-Midway neighborhood, according to the criminal complaint. The St. Paul shooting happened shortly after 1:30 a.m. Jan. 1, after a 911 caller said they “wanted a group of people removed” from a gathering at a home on Van Buren Avenue, police said at the time. Shots were fired before police arrived.

A person associated with the gun told St. Paul police that he gave the gun to Barqadle.

Police spokesman Sgt. Mike Ernster said Tuesday investigators continue to try and determine what role the gun played in the homicide and whether more than one gun was involved. No one has been arrested.

— Nick Ferraro

Candidate claiming Floyd relationship

Relatives of a City Council candidate in Richmond, Va., are casting doubt on his claim that he is a cousin of George Floyd, the Black man whose 2020 death in police custody reignited the

national Black Lives Matter movement.

Tavares Floyd wants to represent the 6th District in Virginia’s capital city of more than 200,000 people. His campaign website states: “After the death of my cousin, George Floyd, I was fully reinvigorated to bring us all together in a major way.”

Tavares Floyd also identified himself as George Floyd’s cousin in June 2020, just days after Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, when he spoke at a large demonstration in Richmond.

“My cousin perished and he died pleading for his mother, and he died at the hands of police officers,” Floyd told the crowd. “That’s what it means to be a Black man in this country.”

In an article published Tuesday, Tavares Floyd’s sister told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that her brother’s claim is a “big lie.”

“It’s not true,” Ashley Floyd told newspaper. She said that “when a man with the same last name was murdered, Tavares saw an opportunity.”

“It’s disgusting actually, and distasteful to prey on someone’s pain,” Ashley Floyd added.

Vincent Floyd, Tavares Floyd’s half brother, told the Times-Dispatch that he was “not aware” of any connection between his family and George Floyd.

In an email to the Times-Dispatch, Tavares Floyd defended his claims that he is related to George Floyd.

“My aunts have a direct connection to the family,” he said. “They are who called me to tell me he had been killed.”

“We attended the family

funeral,” he told the newspaper. “I have pictures from the service.”

Tavares Floyd provided photos to the newspaper that he said show him at a memorial event for George Floyd in Raeford, N.C.

— Associated Press

Timberlake postpones Xcel, other shows

Justin Timberlake has postponed his next six concerts, including a concert on Halloween at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center.

The local tour stop will now take place Feb. 24. Ticketholders can use their tickets for the new date, or return to the point of purchase for a refund.

“Hey guys — I haven’t been feeling great the last few shows and turns out I have bronchitis and laryngitis,” the 43-year-old pop star wrote Tuesday night on Instagram. “I’m so sorry to say I do need to reschedule the next few shows from 10/23 through 11/2 … Thank you for understanding — I’ll make it up to you.”

The tour began in Vancouver in April and spent three months in the States before moving to Europe in late August. After taking a month off, Timberlake returned to the road earlier this month. The outing is in support of his sixth album “Everything I Thought It Was.” Unlike his previous work, the record was a critical and commercial flop.

— Ross Raihala