With the 2017-2018 school year just around the corner, Blue Earth Area elementary and middle school principal Melissa McGuire was fired up at the last BEA School Board meeting on Aug. 21.

“Bring on the kids, we’re ready for them. That’s what I think,” McGuire said with a smile.

In her principal report, McGuire revealed middle school enrollment has increased by four this year with seven students added and three students dropped. Meanwhile, elementary enrollment increased by five with 19 students added and 14 students dropped.

McGuire also mentioned the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports team at the elementary level has progressed nicely over the summer. The team met last week as they worked diligently on preparing a staff presentation.

District technical coordinator and media specialist Jennifer Berkner also had an opportunity to address the School Board regarding the school’s current website, www.blueearth.k12.mn.us.

Blue Earth Area will be changing their URL to beaschools.org at the conclusion of August. According to Berkner, this new domain name was actually purchased a few years ago from Bevcomm. The new URL, beaschools.org, encompasses more of the Blue Earth region. Staff email addresses will not be affected by the change.

BEA elementary and middle school assistant principal Dave Dressler addressed the Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) refresher course that he took part in. The course focused primarily on deescalation techniques for students in distress. Parents and special education teachers also received CPI training last week.

With summer school now completed, a total of seven special education students attended in July. Meanwhile, 57 students participated in targeted services. There were also 18 students who participated in the migrant education summer school program. These students came from the surrounding areas of Welcome, Granada, Fairmont, Elmore, Winnebago, and Blue Earth.

BEA High School principal Rich Schneider revealed seven students took welding academy courses during the spring and summer. These types of courses will help students who are struggling to meet graduation requirements, he said.

Students that qualify for free and reduced lunch will be allowed to take the ACT exam free of charge. Non-qualifying students will be charged $57 for the exam. The exam will only be offered on school days.

College Now courses were also a topic of conversation at the meeting. BEA High School offers a wide variety of subjects to students interested in College Now. These subjects include composition, literature, history, government, algebra, chemistry, pre-calculous, and calculous.

Principal Schneider also discussed the on-going distraction of cell phones in the classroom at the meeting.

“This is my sixth year here, this is the sixth time that I will emphasize that,” Schneider said. “Daily research suggests the human brain is not capable of multi-tasking. Our students ability to learn is being affected by that.”

Action items from the board meeting included:

the acceptance of a $25,000 grant from Bevcomm. Funds from the grant will be used to purchase updated technological equipment for the school.

The board approved their membership to the South Central Services Cooperative at a cost of $1,955.

Special education paraprofessional Peggy DeMarce’s retirement was accepted by the board.

A motion was carried to approve the engagement letter with Van Iwaarden Associates for Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) actuarial services. This is an audit that is required every two years which reviews any outstanding account balances.

The board also authorized student handbooks to be distributed to elementary, middle school, and high school students. The main purpose of this handbook is to clearly outline actions and behavior that can be interpreted as harassment or bullying.

Definitions of unacceptable behavior added to the handbook were acquired from stopbullying.gov. School Board chairman Frankie Bly was in strong support of the handbook additions.

“I appreciate this because as a former teacher and having raised two boys, I know that kids can be cruel. It’s good to have things like this defined,” Bly said.