Newly hired Blue Earth Area High School principal Greg Ewing addressed the BEA School Board last Monday night and gave a brief bio of himself.

The Blue Earth Area School Board welcomed their new high school principal, Greg Ewing, to their board meeting last Monday night.

And, they voted to accept his principal contract as part of the items on the short meeting’s agenda.

There were some changes with the contract, however. BEA superintendent Evan Gough explained that BEA will be ‘sharing’ Ewing with his former school district at Butterfield-Odin.

Ewing has been the K-12 principal at Butterfield-Odin, and Gough said that district asked if Ewing could help them with many of the items necessary “to get the school year off on the right foot.”

“We will adjust his contract eventually to reflect his actual start date for full time employment,” Gough added. “We expect that to be the first or second week of school.”

Ewing said he will be here for things such as the eighth grade and high school open houses, as well as the teacher workshop days.

Ewing replaces Rich Schneider who left to become the new superintendent at Yellow Medicine East in Granite Falls.

Meanwhile, BEA K-7 assistant principal Dave Dressler gave the School Board members an update on all of the back to school preparation work going on the past few weeks at the elementary, middle and high schools.

That report included information that fall sports practices have started with 164 students out for the four sports. That includes 67 for football, 28 for girls tennis, 45 for volleyball and 24 for cross country.

He also reported there are four new teachers in the K-7 school.

“A lot of the teachers have been getting into their classrooms and setting them up,” Dressler told the board. “And of course, the other staff has been busy getting ready for the new school year.”

One new thing Dressler reported on was something called a Parenting Skills Workshop. It will be run through the BEA Community Ed office and will focus on helping parents develop skills of parenting. One class for elementary school-aged kids parents is on Oct. 8, while another for parents of middle school students will be on Oct. 16.

In other business the board:

Approved the purchase of a new 10-passenger mini-van. It was reported that Transportation director Dan Brod had attempted to find a used one, but in the end he could not.

The board then agreed to the purchase of a new one at a cost of just over $32,000. It may not arrive until December, the board learned.

Board members agreed for the need of a new van, which will be used for a variety of purposes.

Approved the sale of G.O. bonds for the improvements of parking lots and boiler plants at the schools.

“This is part of our 10 year facilities plan,” Gough told the board. “And it is necessary.”

The resolution states that the bonds cannot be for over $1.5 million and not be over a 4.0 percent interest rate.

Voted to continue their participation in the South Central Services Cooperative at a fee of $1,995.

Agreed that they would not allow a cell phone tower to be built on school property.

The tower was going to be allowed and the cell tower owners would pay an annual land rent of $1,200.

However, Gough told the board he had learned the state would not allow a rent to be over $175 per year.

The board decided that was not worth any possible liability involved and Gough will ask the company to find another location in the city.

Under personnel matters the board approved the retirement of head custodian James Anderson, the resignation of high school custodian Jeremy Frank, and the appointment of Wayne Hermanson to the position of head custodian of the high school.

Approved the fall coaches list, several school policies, student handbooks and the bus driver contract.