NYM School receives positive news on annual audit report
News | Published on November 5, 2026 at 11:45pm GMT+0000 | Author: Kendall Koenen
0By Chad Koenen
Publisher
The New York Mills School Board received a fairly positive report concerning its annual year-end audit last week.
During its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday night, the NY Mills School Board heard from Samantha Fagerland, of Eide Bailly, concerning the fiscal year 2026 audit.
One of the positives that Fagerland pointed out revolved around the average daily membership, or enrollment, at NY Mills School. The past year had an ADM of 774 students, which was down a bit from a high of 796 students in 2024, but is still significantly higher than 10 years ago when there was an ADM of 732 students.
Fagerland said the reason ADM is so important is that much of the state aid payments are driven by how many students attend the school district each day.
“ADM is the main driver of state and federal aid, as well as your main expenditures,” she said.
The general fund for the school district dipped by $52,671, but the school district still maintained an unassigned fund balance of about five percent, which has remained fairly steady over the past seven years. Fagerland said the school district policy is to maintain an 11.5 percent unassigned fund balance, but the school district has maintained between a 5-10 percent unassigned fund balance in each of the past five years.
Following the presentation, the school board and superintendent Adam Johnson said it would continue to look at its expenses and revenue sources to identify ways to help the district maintain a sufficient assigned and unassigned fund balance.
In other news
• Heard an update on the school district’s MCA tests from high school principal Michelle Young. She stated the school district is ranked in the top three when compared to neighboring school districts in reading and math across the board, which is something the school district is happy to see this year. The annual state standardized tests are taken each spring.
• Acknowledged the following donations: $1,393 from the Arvig Rebate for Schools program for the NY Mills School General Fund, $500 from Perham health for the volleyball program, $695 from Clay County for tandem bicycle/bike fleet and $2,500 from the NY Mills Lions Club for the elementary girls basketball boosters.
• Discussed a new tennis contract from the Perham School District. The school district acknowledged it recently received a bill for the past two years of the coop tennis program, but they were unaware if the school district has received a similar bill and contract in the past. The contract and bill sought a prorated payment for the total cost of the tennis program, including coaches and administration within the Perham School District, based on the number of participants. The school district acknowledged the mutually beneficial arrangement, but wanted to seek more information and discuss the contract more with the Perham School Board before moving forward with the bill. The total bill for the past school year was nearly $5,200 for six NY Mills tennis players.
• Approved the following appointments: Creedan Dunrud as assistant girls basketball coach, Cody Geiser as junior high wrestling coach, Dinee Dykhoff as FFA assistant advisor, Karli Padgett as junior high girls basketball coach and Josh Hendrickx as a volunteer junior high girls basketball coach.
• Approved the following resignations: Zach Hocking as junior high wrestling coach and Jessica Masloski as boys basketball cheer advisor.