By Adam Johnson

New York Mills Superintendent

Hello everyone, 

Even with this humidity, I hope everyone has been enjoying summer. As the new superintendent, I have committed to writing a monthly update in the New York Mills Dispatch. The goal of the letter is to highlight some of the things happening around our great school.

First, I want to congratulate the NY Mills Babe Ruth team on its 3rd place finish at state. They are continuing the tradition of NY Mills baseball, which begins with our incredible summer rec programs (thanks to Alicia Page for organizing) and goes all the way to the NY Mills Millers, who are also having a great season. 

School officially begins on September 3, but August is always a busy month at the school. The week of August 26 is especially full. Throughout the week, we have teacher workshop days,  three home openers, a school board meeting, and an open house! On August 26, cross country has their first meet in Staples-Motley and the August regular board meeting will be taking place in the High School Media Center at 4:30 p.m. 

On August 27, tennis has a triangular in Perham and then Eagles volleyball has their home opener against Frazee. 

On the August 28, we will host an open house from 4-6 p.m. with a ninth grade orientation starting at 5:45 p.m. Then on Thursday, cross country hosts their cross country meet in NY Mills, tennis has a triangular in Perham, and then at 6 p.m., Eagles football hosts their home opener. It will be a great week and I hope to meet a lot of new people at all of these events.

Other events this month include fall sports practice starting on August 12 and a seventh grade orientation on August 20 at 7 p.m. Around the community, I’m excited to attend the Puppet Pageant and Corn Feed on August 16, along with the Eagles Nest PTO Messy and Mighty Fun Run on August 17.

I’m excited to start this new school year and to meet all the students. School officially starts on September 3 at 8:30 a.m. for students in grades pre-k (the Tu/Th group) through 12th grade. It is always fun to see kindergartners excited about their very first “first day” and seniors who are excited about their last “first day.” I think this is what makes small schools like New York Mills special, because we are able to see all of these perspectives in one building.

One new thing this year that you may or may not have heard about is the READ Act that was passed by the Minnesota Legislature. This legislation has many pieces, but the most impactful in the short term is the need to train teachers in reading content. NY Mills joined schools throughout the state in adjusting our calendar to accommodate this new training, which will help students with reading comprehension and skills for many years. The school calendar has five teacher workshop days to help provide this professional development. These five days were strategically placed around holidays so students and families will have an extended break instead of random days off of school. You should know that this is a multiple year process, but one that will be good in the long run.

We have a number of new teachers and staff this year. They will be highlighted on our facebook page, which you can find by searching for New York Mills Public School ISD 553, and on our website, which is www.nymills.k12.mn.us. These are both run by Connie Vandermay, who does an incredible job of highlighting our students and staff on both. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me, the high school office, elementary office, or the district office and any of us here would be happy to help out. Thank you for reading and Go Eagles!