NY Mills to enter mental health contract with LMH

Photo by Chad Koenen
The New York Mills School Board received its annual Comprehensive Achievement and Civil Readiness Report last week. The annual report is required by the State of Minnesota.

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills School District continues to see positive growth in students not only being ready for kindergarten, but graduating from high school.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills School Board heard its annual Comprehensive Achievement and Civil Readiness Report. The annual state report, which was formerly known as the World’s Best Workforce, details individual goals for each school district across the state. 

Among the goals set for the school district was having 100 percent of students that attend the NY Mills pre-kindergarten program be ready for kindergarten. The school district reported that 96 percent of students who attended pre-k at NY Mills School were ready for kindergarten this fall.

The second goal was to close the achievement gap between the free and reduced population and the non free and reduced population in both reading and math to less than 15 percent. The school district met its goal  in reading with a gap of just 10.8 percent, but did not meet its goal in math with a gap of 17.6 percent. 

The school district also met its goal of having all students ready for college by completing a careers course, but did not meet its goal of having 96 percent of students who started their freshman year of high school  graduate in 2024. The school district had just 73.6 percent of students who started school as a freshman graduate in 2024, however, the school board heard that was due to 26.4 percent of students not graduating from NY Mills School. Due to not being able to access the students information, students who left NY Mills School were reported to not graduate, even though they may have from a different high school. 

In other news

• Approved a contract with Lakeland Mental Health Center to provide mental health services for students at NY Mills School.

• Acknowledged a pair of donations from the Ottertail Rod and Gun Club that for the fishing league ($1,500) and the trap team ($4,000). 

• Approved an overnight wrestling trip for the NY Mills wrestling team to attend a tournament in Casselton, N.D. from January 10-11, 2025. 

• Approved the following appointments: Steve Dunrud as a long-term sub, Andrew Foley as a cleaner and Victoria Olson as the wrestling cheer coach.

• Approved the resignation of Mary Hendrickx as elementary school secretary.