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BEA Board votes for $1,000 stipend

Every district employee will receive the $1,000 retention money

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Jan 15, 2023

Sara Albright, with Frankie the Therapy Dog, were at the BEA School Board meeting.

The Blue Earth Area School Board voted to reward all of its employees for all the hard work they have been doing over the past couple of years.

At their meeting on Monday night, Jan. 9, the board voted to approve a $1,000 stipend for every employee of the BEA District.

The special one-time only stipend was a suggestion by superintendent Mandy Fletcher and recommended to the board by the district Finance Committee.

Fletcher mentioned two major reasons for giving out the $1,000 stipends.

“The staff has all worked hard over the past years to help us hit some lofty financial goals,” Fletcher said. “We have now improved our financial situation, and the state of our finances is healthy, as the audit report has shown.”

All of the fund balances were reported to be in good shape during the audit report given during Monday’s meeting.

Another reason for the stipend was the shortage of labor, and the difficulty of finding people to fill all the available open positions.

Fletcher said doing this retention stipend is a relatively unheard of thing, but she and the Finance Committee had checked and it does meet the requirements of the letter of the law.

The stipend would be subject to all taxes and other deductions, and would be made in between normal pay periods.

The board voted unanimously to approve the stipend, with board members Kyle Zierke and Jeff Eckles abstaining from the vote as they have family members employed by the district.

After the meeting, Fletcher said she would be declining her stipend payment.

The board had a special guest at their meeting last Monday.

Frankie, the new therapy dog at the Blue Earth Area Schools, is making a big impact, the BEA School Board learned at their meeting.

Sara Albright, an art teacher at the school, and Frankie’s owner, brought Frankie to the School Board meeting and gave the board members an update on how this new program is working out.

“We have been having a lot of interaction between Frankie and the students,” Albright said. “Younger students have drawn pictures of Frankie, and will read stories to her.”

Albright said many students who have been quiet, shy or introverted have opened up when Frankie comes to visit them. Others have learned how to approach dogs, or take care of them.

“Having kids open up when Frankie is around is huge for me,” she told the board. “I want to thank you for allowing this. It is a beautiful thing and very rewarding, for the students, staff and for me.”

Albright also listed her continuing goals with Frankie. They included to continue to develop SEL lessons and activities that Frankie can do with students, be a positive representative for BEA Schools and continue to work with students in classrooms and at student events.

Albright and Frankie left the board meeting to head over to a BEA basketball game to cheer for the team.

The board members also heard an update from the Community Engagement Coordinator, Brenda Millmann.

Millmann gave the board information on the variety of projects she has been involved with since she started working at the new position last summer.

Those include notes and cards to all students, working with community organizations, and having events for both students and their parents, as well as members of the community. Those include movie night, Vikings watch party and several others.

She also helped resurrect several programs including Better than B’s and the Buc Weekend Bag program.

So far she has been in contact with 820 students and has had 420 people attend the various new events.

Next up is a School Carnival on May 3.

In other business at Monday’s meeting, the BEA School Board:

• Learned the results of a recent half year review of superintendent Mandy Fletcher.

Fletcher received an overall average score of 3.28 out of 4 in three different categories.

• Elected board officers for 2023. They are: Sara Hauskins, chairman; Kyle Zierke, vice-chairman; Stacey Beyer, clerk; Jeff Eckles, treasurer.

The board also had reelected members and newly elected board member Mark Franta take the oath of office and approved board appointments to various committees.

• Heard the annual audit report from Ben Johnson of CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen) auditing firm. Johnson called it a clean audit report and reported all of the fund balances were in good shape.

The board accepted the audit report.

• Voted to approve a resolution declaring non-holiday status of Christopher Columbus Day. This was done to allow the School Board to meet and conduct business on that day.

The resolution passed 6-1 with board member Franta voting no.

• Approved a high school roofing project bid of $83,000 to Nieman Roofing.

• Approved personnel matters of hiring Vanessa Wirkus in accounts payable, leave request for Erika Hertel and lane change for Lauren Sturtz from BA30 to MA.