By Adam Johnson

New York Mills School Superintendent

I hope everyone is having a great winter. It is already February and the school year continues to roll along.

This month, Mrs. Walz’s Intro to Acting and Media class performed the one-act play “The Yes-You-Have-To, Multiple-Choice, Terrifyingly-Significant, Biggest-Of-The-Big-Deal Exam.” This was an awesome performance from the students! Thanks to Mrs. Walz for putting it all together. Speaking of plays, thanks to the Parent’s Nest, Storybook Theater will be putting on a production of “Goldilocks & The Three Bears” for students in grades 1-12 during the week of February 17-21.

New York Mills has already had two teams qualify for FFA state. The Fish and Wildlife team qualified consisting of Ellie Scheidecker, Teran Scheidecker, Brock Ruther, Austin Geiser, Cyrus Aho, Johnny Braukmann and Toivo Mursu. The Crops team qualified, which is made up of Jeremy Kopveiler, Carlyle Tumberg, Wessten Simpson and Riley Selander. Congratulations to the students and Mr. Schornack on a great run so far.

New York Mills Business Professionals of America also had a number of students qualify for the State Leadership Conference. Qualifying are: Audrey Weller, first in Intermediate Word Processing, Lucas Johnston, first in Word Processing, and Brienna Honer, Jaeger Schmitt, Gemma Greenwaldt, Owen Johnson, Lilja Pakkala, Bella Huwe, Aubree Salo, Anika Mursu, Reegan Baymler and Lilly Anderson. Congratulations to all of these students and Mr. Bauck, who has done an awesome job with the BPA team.

Mock Trial season is underway as well. The team is currently 1-1. At the Bagley event, Tiffany Hoefs was voted Most Outstanding Witness and Dylan Selander was voted Most Outstanding Lawyer for our side. This is a great program. Congratulations to the Mock Trial Team and coaches Mr. Boe, Mr Sonsolla, Mrs. Sonsalla, and Mrs. Pieschke on a great season thus far.

The speech season is also in full swing. Already this season, Elijah Geiser has finished first in both competitions in Poetry for his interpretation of “Ren” by Ren Gills. Brooke Sonsalla has finished third in Discussion and received an Excellence in Original Oratory with the persuasive speech she wrote to shed light on how first responders silently struggle with PTSD and advocate for increased awareness and support. Soren Stout finished 1st in Discussion at the DGF meet. Payton Lausten received an Excellence in Prose for her interpretation of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Julia Johnson also finished fifth at the DGF meet in Great Speeches with her analysis of former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s 2012 speech to parliament using a simplification of Bitzer’s Rhetorical Situation. Congratulations to the Speech team and Ms. Roberts-Veazie on a great season so far.

Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten registrations are coming up. Monday, March 3, is Pre-K registration night from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Registration is happening in the Pre-K classroom. Students must be 4 or 5 years old by September 1, 2025. Mrs. Geiser, Mrs. Tervo, and the entire Pre-K team have built an amazing program that has both educational and play-based activities. If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Geiser at kgeiser@nymills.k12.mn.us.

Kindergarten registration will be held Thursday, March 13, 2025 from 6-7 p.m. in the Commons. To register for kindergarten, students need to be 5 years old by September 1, 2025. It is very important to get students registered now so we can plan accordingly for teachers, paras, etc. Parents will fill out paperwork, there will be hands-on activities for children to participate in, and each future kindergartener will go home with an Eagle’s gift.

On the sports side, we are moving closer to section and state tournaments. The wrestling team is hovering around .500 on the season. Creed Mursu is the conference champion and Grady Roberts and Blake Unger finished in second place. Team sections will be held at Wadena-Deer Creek on February 14, with individual sections taking place in Wadena-Deer Creek on the 21st. State wrestling will be the following weekend. Congratulations to Blake Unger on recently achieving his 100th victory! The girls basketball team is currently 13-5 and on an 8 game winning streak. They are currently the number 3 seed in the subsection with many big games coming up. Sections for the girls basketball team start on February 24. The boys basketball team is currently 5-11 on the season. They are currently the 9 seed in the subsection. Section tournament starts on March 3 for the boys. For all sports info and all upcoming games, check out the school website for the information.

We also celebrated all of our paraprofessionals in January. Our paras are a vital part of our school community! They help keep the school running and we could not do it without each of them. Thank you to all of our paras for what they do.

In January, we welcomed two new board members, Ethan Kern and Jodi Seelhammer, and said goodbye to Wendy Hetland and Teresa Pederson. Thank you Wendy and Teresa for your years of service on the school board.

We received notice of the retirement of long time teacher, Doug Salo. Mr. Salo has had a tremendous impact on many students and staff. I am truly grateful for being able to work with Mr. Salo, as he has helped me with the transition to New York Mills. Thank you Mr. Salo for all of your years and hard work to help New York Mills students.

Also at the January board meeting, we posted for a Speech Language Pathologist. Currently, we are using eLuma, an online speech provider for many of our students. This position will be an in-person SLP. We are hopeful that we will be able to fill the position and this will best help our students.

This past month, the school did experience a tragedy. Bus driver Vern Snyder passed away. Vern was loved by the students on the bus and his fellow bus drivers. Our thoughts and prayers are with Vern’s family.

A few more exciting things to watch for…February is I Love To Read Month in the elementary. There will be a number of awesome activities to help support reading. On the 21st, the fourth grade will be hosting the annual Wax Museum. Yearbooks will be coming out soon, so get yours ordered if you’d like one for your student(s). High School yearbooks can be ordered online and elementary yearbooks can be ordered with the form available in the office.

February 14 is a teacher training day, so there is no school for students on that date. February 17 is President’s Day, so the district will be closed. We hope your family enjoys the four day weekend. On March 6, we will be hosting conferences for everyone in the building beginning at 1 p.m., with no school on March 7.

In closing, I want to say thank you to the students, staff, and community of New York Mills for making this an incredible place to work. The staff is truly amazing with all that they do for our students. From coaching to hosting gingerbread parties, NY Mills is blessed to have an amazing staff. The community has been super welcoming to myself and my family. NY Mills students are awesome, even when they try to get a snow day when it is 40 degrees and sunny. I am truly lucky to be the superintendent of the New York Mills School District. Thank you everyone and Go Eagles.