From the NY Mills School District Office: Late yesterday afternoon, we were notified that we had our first lab-confirmed positive COVID case of a student who was in our building. We have completed the contact tracing and have notified all individuals who must quarantine at this time. Thankfully, the protocols we have in place limited the number of students who need to quarantine based on the Minnesota Department of Heath guidance. Our school’s COVID Response Team continues to work with OTC Public Health and the MDH Regional Support Team to determine our learning model. If and when our learning model changes, you will be notified through School Messenger, the school district website and our Facebook page. A reminder that there is no school Thursday and Friday due to fall break. Enjoy your extended weekend!
There have been many questions regarding the current Learning Model for New York Mills School in relation to the county numbers. In response to these questions, we wanted to take a moment to explain the decision making process here at the school. Each Thursday, the current county numbers are updated. After the new case numbers are released, officials from the school work with Otter Tail County Public Health and the MDH Regional Support Team to evaluate the Learning Model that would be best for our school. It’s important to note that the county number is just one data point that is considered. Besides the county numbers, we also look at the current case numbers specifically to the New York Mills zip code, as well as the confirmed case numbers in the NY Mills School. Up to this point, the guidance has been to remain in the “In Person Learning Model.” If this recommendation is to change, families and staff will be notified through School Reach, Facebook and the School Website. Please note that we would have a week to implement any change in the Learning Models.
Need clarification on the NYM School morning drop-off plan? Check out this short video to see what changed and what stayed the same. Click on the title for the video link.
Attached you will find our "New York Mills Public School Return to Learn Plan." Please know that our priorities for writing this plan were the safety of students and staff, and maintaining in-person learning as much as possible, following the guidelines put before us. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all staff and community members who contributed to the making of this plan, be it by serving on a committee, or by providing input and asking those tough questions that we needed to hear to be able to incorporate them into our plan. Please know that a lot of time and care was put into creating a plan that we feel works well for our students, our staff, and our community and we hope that you feel the same! Thank you to everyone for your continued support of New York Mills Public School. We miss our students and are looking forward to the 2020-2021 school year! Go Eagles! We can do this! Sincerely, Blaine Novak, Michelle Young-Lecoustre, Judith Brockway (click the headline to view the document)
