NYM to put a focus on social, emotional, behavioral skills
News | Published on September 2, 2025 at 2:34pm GMT+0000 | Author: Tucker Henderson
0By Chad Koenen
Publisher
New York Mills Elementary students will have a new way to learn social, emotional and behavioral skills that can benefit them long after their time is done at school.
During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the NY Mills School Board heard a presentation about the Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Blueprint. The program will guide students in learning social, environmental and behavioral skills that will be taught, modified and reinforced like the academic skills more commonly associated with elementary school.
As part of the new program, NY Mills students will be introduced to Eagle SOAR as the foundation of their positive behavior environment. The name SOAR stands for safety, ownership, acceptance and responsibility.
The students will learn and practice expected behaviors in all areas of the school, including classrooms, hallways, the bus, playground and lunchroom. To reinforce the program, students will regularly participate in Eagle SOAR rallies and will have classroom lessons to explore what SOAR looks like in action and how it connects to the COMMUNITY (connections, order, mutual respect, motivation, united, necessary work, identity, traditions, you).
“What I am really excited about is the SOAR rally’s,” said elementary counselor Kristin Draeger..
For example, Draeger said for the month of September students will focus on the letter c, which stands for Community during the SOAR rallies. She said the students will focus on building connections every Friday morning during the weekly rallies, before moving onto another aspect of the program.
Dennis Lamb, who is a professor at Southwest Minnesota State University, said he works with students who are trying to get their masters degree in education. In working with one of who students, Alesha Bates, the pair developed this program for other school to utilize to promote positive social, emotional and behavioral skills.
Lamb and Bates will be meeting with students and staff members on a regular basis throughout the year to discuss how the program is going at NY Mills School so it can be tweaked, if necessary, for future school districts as well.
“We are really excited to be part of New York Mills and taking this on,” said Bates.
Several members of the school board thanked Draeger for the presentation and emphasized the need to focus on social, emotional and behavioral learning within the school district.
In other news
• Acknowledged the following donations: $2,500 from the NY Mills Lions Club for football, AED and first aid equipment from Perham Health, STEM carts from Parents Nest and filing cabinets and desks from Klein Insurance.
• Approved the appointments: Christina Herness as paraprofessional, Bryan Bohn as paraprofessional, Belinda Marweg for kitchen staff, Dinee Dykhoff as long-term sub, Darla Guehna as long-term sub and Jamie George as long-term sub.
• Accepted the following resignations: Dawn Barvels as paraprofessional and Jo Rudnitski as internventionalist.
• Heard the activities report from Bryan Dunrud who highlighted the good attendance at the fall sports meeting and the new trainers from Astera Health who will be working with student-athletes at the school district. He said high school football numbers are down a bit from years past, but the junior high numbers are strong. The volleyball and cross country numbers are also strong for the fall season.
• Heard from elementary principal Judith Brockway that the school district has hired enough speech language employees to be able to have speech assistance for students in person, as opposed to online like was done last year.
• Heard from high school principal Michelle Young that the school district is above the state average in the recently released MCA test results. She said the elementary is well above the state average in certain areas, which she said shows that the school district’s work with its internventionalist is making a difference. She also informed the school board that the seventh grade orientation was well attended with just one student not attending the information night. The school board also spent time discussing AI and how it could be utilized both in a positive and negative way in the school district.