By Adam Johnson

New York Mills Superintendent

December is here, which brings basketball, wrestling, snow, and holiday celebrations. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Girls basketball season started with a close loss versus Underwood and a victory over Verndale. The wrestling season started on December 3 with a home meet against Border West, where the team came up just short. Boys basketball season starts on December 5th with a road game in Verndale. FFA is always busy, but will travel to Crookston on December 6. Lego League will travel for its first competition ever on December 14. Winter season always gets busy, so please make sure to follow the activities calendar found on our website and look at the community newsletter that is sent out monthly for any changes. Thank you to all the coaches, event workers, parents, and everyone else who make these seasons a success. Best of luck to all Eagles!

New York Mills High School is also proud to announce this year’s winners of the NY Mills Academics, Arts/Activities, and Athletics (AAA) Award, which goes to Ayla Olson and Isaac Kawlewski. This is a prestigious award through the Minnesota State High School League.

Congratulations Ayla and Isaac!

Christmas concerts are happening as well. The band and choir are hosting several concerts throughout the month. Ms. Peterson and Mr. Armagost have done an excellent job this year with the students and the choirs and bands continue to improve! This has been awesome for me to see!

Matt Radniecki is retiring as head football coach and as Athletic Director for New York Mills. Join me in saying thank you to Coach Radniecki for everything he has done for the program over the past 26 years. In my short time in Mills, he has been great to work with and I wish him the very best.

Parent-teacher conferences were very well attended this year. Thanks to all the families that visited the school to connect with our staff.

The 13th annual NYM Community Carnival (and my first) was awesome. It is great to see so many people pull together to put this incredible event together. Thank you to the Parents Nest for putting this together and thank you to everyone who attended.

For the past four years, the district has been underbilled from Otter Tail Power due to a meter that was being billed incorrectly. Last spring, the meter began to read correctly and we were being billed the correct amount–which doubled our total bill. In response, the district office questioned Otter Tail Power on the bill increase, where we learned of the underbilling. By law, an electric utility can ask for back payment for 12 months, which means the district owes Otter Tail Power a bit over $91,000 for used electricity. In response, the district is working on ways to conserve energy as much as possible as we pay for this past bill.

The last day of school before Winter Break is December 20 with students returning on January 6.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from everyone at New York Mills School!