By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The New York Mills School Board is hoping to develop a vision for what could be needed within the school district and its building for the next generation of students.

During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills School Board approved a proposal from ICS to conduct a facilities needs assessment. The school district completed a similar study in 2017 and the study would provide the school district a road map of potential projects that may be needed down the road. 

“We would go through and look at the facility again,” said Lori Christianson of ICS. “I know we have made some improvements to the facility since 2017, but there could be some things that need to be updated again.”

As part of the plan, ICS and school district representatives will host listening sessions from the community to see what residents feel are needed at the school and potential areas of improvements within the school district and facility as a whole. There will also be listening sessions with staff members and students as well. 

The study will also look at enrollment projects, updating the educational adequate assessment to make sure the spaces used by the school district are meeting MDE guidelines and are being used in the correct way. 

In addition to the contract with ICS, several school board members, including Derek Geiser raised concerns over a contract with Interquest Detection Canines to conduct up to nine searches of the parking lot and inside the school building to search for everything from guns to illegal drugs. 

Geiser said his biggest concern revolves around the searching of the parking lot as he said students can bring a parent’s vehicle to school and unknowingly bring shotgun shell or other items that are not permitted on school property. He also raised the concern over having nine such searches throughout the year, or basically once a month, instead of just two or three random ones. 

“I understand searching in the school, but I have a problem in the parking lot,” said Geiser.

He went on to ask what happened if a student refused to let police search their vehicle if the K-9 dog identified a foreign object in a vehicle in the parking lot.

Board chair Amy Mursu echoed Geiser’s concerns over the K-9 searches, especially in the parking lot as she said searching vehicles for guns is inconsistent in some ways with the school district having a high school trap team that utilizes guns. 

School board member Kristina Ehnert said she was in favor of the searches as a deterrent to keeping weapons and illegal substances off the school property.

High school principal Michelle Young said the searches are completely random and even the principals don’t know when a search will happen. She said doing random searches can help to keep students safe as it may deter them to bring illegal items onto school property.

NY Mills School Superintendent Adam Johnson said at his previous school district, school officials would contact law enforcement if they had concerns that illegal items were being brought on to school property. Law enforcement would then conduct a search, although he said that wasn’t always done in a timely manner and could take a week to complete. 

After a lengthy discussion, Ehnert made a motion to approve the Interquest Detection Canines contract, but that motion failed by a 3-4 margin with Brian Schermerhorn, Kristina Ehnert and Derek Braukmann in favor of the motion, while Amy Mursu, Jodi Seelhammer, Derek Geiser and Ethan Kern voted against the motion.  

Following the vote against the contract, those against the proposal asked that the school district bring more information about options for K-9 searches, whether the county can assist with the searches and how often items have been found on school property in the past.

In other news

• Accepted the following donations: $2,000 from the Deer Hunters Association to the trap team, $1,000 from the East Otter Tail Soil and Water Conservation to FFA, $500 from the Bluffton Baseball Association for the scoreboard, $500 from the East Otter Tail Dairy Association for FFA, $500 from the VFW Post 3289 for Close Up, $1,250 from the NY Mills Lions Club for the DARE Program and $300 from Newton Township for summer rec.

• Approved an overnight trip for the NY Mills softball team to Jackson, Minn. for a tournament and BPA for the national convention from May 7-11 in Florida. 

• Called for bids for the student built house for sale. The minimum bid will be $78,000 and are due by May 14. The house will be awarded to the highest bidder. 

• Approved the following appointments: Brea Tallman as elementary administrative assistant, Sutton Lohmiller as assistant track coach, Terry Geiser as volunteer coach for baseball, Greg Esala as volunteer coach for baseball and softball, Teegan Austen as volunteer coach for baseball, Tiffany Briard as volunteer coach for softball and Craig Orlando as phy. Ed teacher for the 2025-26 school year. 

• Accepted the following resignations: Jennifer Lohmiller as ninth grade volleyball coach and varsity assistant volleyball coach, Lacey Schik as paraprofessional and Mari Willie as ECFE parent educator. 

• Heard about a new Transfinder ID app that will be unveiled at the school next fall. The app will allow parents, as well as staff members like transition coordinator Brent Gudmundson, to track where buses are located on a map. This will allow parents to have a better idea of when a bus coming from out of town for things like an extracurricular event will be coming back to the school. It will also provide Gudmundson the ability to track a bus in real time in the event it is running late or has a mechanical issue along the route.