New York Mills School to make over $500,000 in cuts for 2026-27 school year
News | Published on March 31, 2026 at 2:45pm GMT+0000 | Author: Tucker Henderson
0Class sizes should not be affected by cuts
By Chad Koenen
Publisher
Facing a budget shortfall that cannot be ignored, the New York Mills School Board moved forward with more than $500,000 in budget reductions for the upcoming fiscal year.
During its regularly scheduled meeting last week, the school board approved the reductions to help close a $748,352 budget deficit for the FY26. The reductions will be done primarily through attrition and reassignment of duties and will not affect programming/extracurricular activities at the school.
The revised budget for FY26 shows revenue of just over $11.1 million and expenses just under $11.9 million. With a deficit of $748,352, the school district will end the year with a total fund balance of approximately $1.15 million depending on the final ADM and audit report. If the school district faced another similar deficit next year the total fund balance would fall to approximately $405,599.
NY Mills Superintendent Adam Johnson said much of deficit is primarily due to costs rising faster than additional state aid.
Two positives from last week’s meeting was that the state formula allowance will be increase 2.69 percent next year when it was originally estimated to be just two percent, as well as the ability to absorb many of the cuts without increasing class sizes.
The cuts will be across the board and do not just affect the classrooms. The cuts include: .5 elementary teacher, .6 elementary teacher, .4 elementary teacher, .4 pre-kindergarten teacher, .67 high school ELA teacher, 2.0 elementary MTSS paraprofessionals, 1.0 media center paraprofessional, 1.0 cleaner, 1.0 physical education paraprofessional, .5 secretary, .5 business manager, .2 community education assistant, 1.0 special education teacher, .25 gifted and talented teacher and 1.0 YET room paraprofessional.
Johnson said the paraprofessional positions were restructured and the office staff positions will be combined and reassigned with existing staff.
“None of (the paras) were eliminated we are just going to try to absorb them,” he said.
An emphasis was also put on keeping full-time positions whenever possible, as the only full-time teaching position cut was a special education teacher.
Cuts also include things like reducing transportation, custodial and food service costs, reducing non-essential software, eliminating teacher purchasing cards, reducing athletic supply budgets, reducing field trips, reducing extracurricular travel to a 90-mile radius of NY Mills with the exception of conference section, state or football travel and restructuring high school subs.
The cuts should amount to approximately $524,888 in savings for next year, while the school district also looks to increase costs for things like school age child care fees, summer recreation fees, prek fees and participation fees, along with additional state aid.
School board members said they appreciated the hard work of identifying cuts that will spare the school district from increasing class sizes, while also spreading the cuts out across the entire school district.
“I appreciate the entire school is facing the cuts, unlike some schools where they just cut teaching staff. The cuts are being made across the board,” said board chair Amy Mursu.
In other news
• Acknowledged the following donations: $250 from Larry Hodgson for BPA, $6,745 from Arvig Enterprises, Inc. for the School Partnership program, $1,000 from the Ottertail Rod and Gun Club for library books and $500 from the East Ottertail Dark House and Angling Club for trap team.
• Approved the non renewing of probationary teachers: Adam Justin, Lindsay Kennedy, Kayla Lueders, Carol Tornquist and Katelyn Tervo.
• Approved the following appointments: Karli Kawlewski as volunteer softball coach, Grace Brasel as junior high softball coach, Jo Rudnitzki as home bound teacher, Greg Esala as co-assistant baseball coach, Terry Geiser as co-assistant baseball coach and Tiffany Briard as assistant softball coach.
• Approved the following resignations: Katherine Dittmann as elementary paraprofessional, Marsha Maki as business manager, Adele Esala as sixth grade teacher, Tina Dale as English teacher, Scott Maki as building and grounds, Michelle Marsh as district office secretary and Zach Christenson as head boys basketball coach and a termination of contract with Christenson as paraprofessional.