BEA science teacher Julie Ackerman tells the BEA board about the trip to San Salvador Island in the Bahamas with 15 BEA students in June.

In high school, there are field trips and then there are some extra special field trips. At their meeting on Monday night, July 10, the Blue Earth Area School Board learned all about one of those extra special ones.

BEA science teacher Julie Ackerman gave the board members a report about a recent science trip which she and 15 BEA juniors took to San Salvador Island in the Bahamas.

“We left on June 23,” Ackerman reported. “It was to attend an ecology field course there. It went really well, especially since it was the first time we have done this.”

She said the course included an excursion in the morning, then lunch, another excursion and then dinner. After dinner was lab time.

Each student also kept a journal of what they were learning.

“We snorkeled on six or more sites, mainly on reefs,” she said. “We also explored caves which were partially underwater, depending on the tides.”

There was even one night time snorkel excursion.

“Some of the kids did not want to do the night time snorkel, and some did not feel comfortable doing the cave trip, at first. But most eventually decided to try it and were glad they did.”

Ackerman said the plan was to start with the easier, less exciting reefs to explore and then build up to the reefs with lots of things to explore.

“So we tried to save the best for last,” she told the board.

They also took a boat to the outer reefs, swam with sea turtles and a shark or two, as well as explored a lighthouse.

Plus the BEA group joined with high school students from Buffalo, New York, and cleaned up a beach one day.

“They got to experience cleaning up a part of nature,” Ackerman said. “Then hauling the trash to the dump, and seeing what the dump was like.”

She said the Ecology Course is held on San Salvador Island that is not built up and has lots of interesting areas on it to study ecology.

The island was once called Watling’s Island and is famous for possibly being the location of Christopher Columbus’s first sighting of the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492.

Ackerman said that she felt the trip was a success, and that it gave the kids a great experience.

“I was super proud of the kids, they acted very mature,” Ackerman told the board. “I could see that many of them ‘grew up’ a little more in the one week’s time.”

In other business at the relatively short meeting, the BEA Board:

• Learned the results of a superintendent’s evaluation that was done last month. Overall, superintendent Mandy Fletcher received a score of 3.23 out of a possible 4 points.

She received a 3.07 in the category of leadership, a 3,64 in communication and a 3.0 in ethics and professionalism.

• Heard a report from Fletcher about a Crisis Response 2-day training session held in Rochester, which she and the principals attended.

She related that the staff learned quite a bit about handling a crisis and about how to reunite family members with children as quickly as possible.

• Learned that a Community Task Force is being formed and will meet next week. It concerns studying the condition of all the Blue Earth Area School District buildings, as well as generating ideas for the future.

• Approved miscellaneous pay rates for many jobs at the school, from substitute teachers, to ticket sellers at events. Many of the rates stayed the same.

• Approved activity/meal rates for 2023-24. There will be no charge for all student breakfasts and lunches this year, as per state requirements.

• Approved board member reimbursement rates. Those rates include $600 annual for chair and clerk, $50 per meeting up to half day, and $150 per full day meeting.

• Approved two new hires, Nicole Uecker and Katie Mullaly, as elementary teachers and approved a leave of absence for Andrea Nienaber, elementary paraprofessional.