Builders exceed minority employment goals

The builders of the new $41 million Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters say they surpassed goals for employing minority and women-owned businesses by a wide margin.

Lynn Littlejohn, director of community affairs for Mortenson Construction, the general contractor, said 51 percent of firms involved in the project were minority or women-owned businesses, exceeding the goal of 25 percent. She said the contract values spanned a wide range.

"From $250 to $2 million," she said. "We had a wide range of firms in terms of the capacity and their capability that we had involved in the project."

The project also exceeded its target for the diversity of individual workers as well. She says the portion of total hours logged by minority workers was 27 percent, topping the goal by 2 percentage points. Female workers accounted for 10 percent of total hours, double the goal.

About 600 school district employees began moving into the new building last week. The five-story, 153,000 square-foot building is located along West Broadway Ave. in north Minneapolis.