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By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills School Board took a tour of the expansive high school and district office area HVAC project last week.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night, the school board and several guests took a tour of the project to get a first hand look at the work that has been completed, as well as get an update on where the project stands. 

The HVAC project is essentially replacing all of the duct work, lighting and ceilings in the high school and throughout the district office area. The project also includes new VAV boxes that are being installed in the classroom ceilings. The VAV boxes make it possible to control the temperature in each room. 

The new air handling project comes on the heels of a project in the elementary wing of the school last year.

Following the tour, NY Mills Superintendent Blaine Novak said the project is tracking to finish on time with the goal of being completed the last part of August. 

Fitness center

Bryan Dunrud raised a concern to the school board about the potential removal of the fitness center at the school. 

Following the meeting, Novak said several years ago three classrooms were converted into the fitness center. While the fitness center was used by classes and athletes, a jump in enrollment has required the school district to convert the fitness center back into classrooms due to a lack of space.  

Dunrud said he uses the equipment regularly as part of his classes and having the equipment at the school makes for easy access without having to bring the students off campus. He said most of his junior high students use the equipment several days a week as part of class and the equipment was a way to help students feel positive about themselves.

By having the equipment on campus, Dunrud said he can utilize the equipment for as short as 10-15 minutes, before moving onto another part of his class. If the equipment is moved somewhere else that wouldn’t be the case. 

In addition to class the equipment is also used by athletes at the school as well. 

Later in the meeting, Novak said no one wanted to lose the fitness center on campus and the district is looking at other options for the equipment. He said the equipment is in a storage unit and will remain there until a long-term plan for the equipment can be developed. 

In other news

• Accepted the following donations: $1,200 from the NY Mills Lions Club for the summer softball program and $1,300 from the NY Mills VFW for the bandwagon.

• Approved the appointment of KayAnn Kahilainen as paraprofessional.

• Accepted the following resignations: Casie Polman as paraprofessional, Connie Kawlewski as paraprofessional and Dawnelle Desautel as school aged child care.