Population study shows enrollment to be similar to 10 years ago

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

After years of dramatic growth within the New York Mills School District, enrollment is expected to take a slight dip over the next 10 years. 

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills School Board heard a projected enrollment presentation from John Powers that shows an expected 2.9 percent decrease in enrollment by 2033. That follows several years of slow, but dramatic growth within the school district that has seen the school enrollment grow to 749 students this year. Based on his projections, Powers said the K-12 enrollment could dip to 727 students by 2033 due to continued open enrollment and smaller class sizes replacing some of the larger classes going through the junior high and high school levels. 

Over the past 10 years, Powers said enrollment grew in NY Mills from 706 students to 749 students. The school district’s enrollment is expected to continue to increase over the next few years to as high as the low 760s, before tapering off and eventually decreasing by 2033-34. The projected enrollment in 2033-34 is expected to be quite similar to what it was just 10 years ago. 

Since state aid funding, which is the largest source of revenue for school districts across the state is tied to student enrollment, tracking projected enrollment numbers can not only help a school district plan for future growth, but potential decline as well. The projections can also help a school district plan for future building projects to see where the greatest future need of space will exist. 

“Enrollment is such a big factor in your building space, your future enrollment and where you should be investing in your building” said Lori Christiansen of ICS. “This will just be a starting point for the district to say here is what we are looking at for the next 10 years.”

One of the biggest changes since the last time the school district did an enrollment study five years ago was the number of students who are choosing home school options. In 2014-15 just 25 students in the NY Mills School district choose to be home schooled, while that number has spiked in NY Mills and many other school districts in the area since the COVID-19 pandemic. This past year 90 students within the NY Mills School District were home schooled.  

“Most of your home (district) students attend New York Mills, but increasingly, students are choosing other options,” he said.

During the 2014-15 school year there were 629 students living in the NY Mills School District. Of that amount, 83 percent of students attended their home NY Mills School District. The total number of students who live in the school district and could attend NY Mills School grew to 766 students last year, however, just three more in district students attended NY Mills. That equated to 68 percent of the total eligible students in the school district boundaries.

Powers said most of the changes as to why less NY Mills eligible students are attending their home school district, as opposed to other school districts or home school options, are outside of the school district’s control. For example, he said parents may work in neighboring Perham or Wadena and opt to send their children to a school closer to their work, or may need childcare, have a desire to have their children attend school where the parents did, or even if they live near the boundaries of the school district’s and just want to go to a school closer to their home. 

The key, said Powers, is to find out why some of the students are leaving and see if there is anything the school district can do differently to attract more students to stay at NY Mills School. Most students who open enroll out of the NY Mills School District attend the Perham-Dent School District, while Wadena-Deer Creek makes up the second largest portion of students open enrolling out of the school district. 

While a smaller percentage of NY Mills School District residents are enrolling in the school district, Powers said there are even more students who are choosing to attend the school district through open enrollment. 

“The positive here is you attract a good number of kids, you hold those kids and you gain more kids in the upper grades,” he said. 

NY Mills Superintendent Adam Johnson said there are a number of things that could change the enrollment projection over the next 10 years, like the addition of a 60-unit apartment building just south of town. He said he will work with representatives from ICS to see if the school district will need additional space to accommodate the additional students over the next few years and what, if anything, can be done to keep more students attending NY Mills School District for the foreseeable future. 

In other news

• Approved the following appointments: Tammy Cichy as school nurse, Steve Dunrud as junior high volleyball coach, Dale Eckhoff as half time bus driver, Zach Christenson as head boys basketball coach, Noah Pesola as assistant football coach, Lisa Pomeranz as kitchen cashier/prep, Cindy Seaton as kitchen server, Marissa Witt as childcare coordinator and Jakob Reynolds as school van driver. 

• Approved the following resignations: Bev Witt as paraprofessional, childcare coordinator and AM childcare provider; Eric Niemi as assistant football coach and Adam Wedde as trap coach.

• Heard a presentation from elementary principal Judith Brockway about the expansive staff training for teachers and staff members for the Letters program. She said the school district is hoping to coordinate its training for all staff members throughout the district. The training is part of a new state mandate that requires additional training for all teachers and school staff members who teach students reading in any way, shape or form. 

• Approved, by a 4-2 margin with Derek Geiser and AmyAnn Mursu voting in dissent, a contract from Interquest Canine Detection to do searches both inside the school and school parking lot this year. Both Geiser and Mursu raised questions about the legality of utilizing canines to search vehicles and whether that constituted probable cause should a canine detect a foreign substance in a vehicle. They both expressed a desire to keep the searches to inside the school building and not the parking lot. 

• Discussed the high school cell phone policy that states students must place cell phones in a designated holder upon entering a classroom, but they can be utilized in the hallways in-between classes or on breaks. Johnson said the school district did not want to seek a full ban of cell phones at school or force them to leave them in their lockers all day. Elementary students do need to leave their cell phones in their locker all day. 

• Accepted a $3,000 donation from Womanade for student assistance.