BEA School Board receives staffing update

Technology coordinator Stacy Haase gave a presentation to the School Board during their meeting on July 8.
The Blue Earth Area School Board ended up discussing several items at their meeting on Monday, July 8, that all had to do with staff changes, teacher retention and finding enough substitute teachers.
During her report, superintendent Mandy Fletcher gave an update on the fall staffing situation, saying many of the openings have been filled.
“We are still looking for an elementary art teacher, for grades K to five,” Fletcher said. “And we have made an offer to a middle school science teacher.”
She added that the district is once again looking for an Ag teacher. They had hired one, but that person has now withdrawn.
“This is not the Ag teacher position we already have,” Fletcher explained. “We tried to hire an industrial arts teacher and had no applications, so we switched it to an Ag teacher and we did get applicants.”
At the end of the meeting the board accepted the resignation of one teacher, and the hiring of two new elementary teachers.
When the board looked at passing a list of pay rates for various positions at the school, Fletcher suggested a change in the rate of pay for substitute teachers.
The rate had been $125 per day for subbing one to four days, $175 per day for five to 14 days, and $200 per day for 15 or more days.
Fletcher said the rate was not the driving force to get short or long term subs.
The board changed the rate to $175 per day, no matter now many days in a month a substitute works. The move was made to be more in line with the pay rate of surrounding districts.
“Many districts are having trouble getting substitute or guest teachers,” Fletcher said. “We will start advertising tomorrow for a long-term substitute teacher position.”
At the beginning of the meeting a group of parents spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, expressing their concern with the number of teachers leaving the BEA school system.
“There seems to be some long-time and highly regarded teachers who are leaving our school,” Matt Alford, one of the parents stated. “We have a concern that there is a problem, and we are here to offer to be part of a solution. We are all in for a positive change.”
The group asked if there is any data about the reasons for teachers leaving, and whether it is a trend.
School board member Mark Franta said he agreed with the group.
“I think it is a big concern,” Franta said. “And I appreciate your offer to help.”
Board chair Sara Hauskins told the group that they would study the issue, get some data to share, and keep it on their radar.
Hauskins also gave an update on setting goals for superintendent Fletcher for the coming year. She presented three goals that had to do with the proposed referendum, student voice on the School Board, and professional development.
Board member Franta said the goals should include the improvement of student test scores.
“Those other goals do not have a real direct effect on our school system,” he said. “Goals should be on academic progress of our students and improvement on the state tests.”
Hauskins said that issue will be discussed at a September work session after the most recent test scores are released in August.
The BEA Board also got an update on technology at the school during their meeting last Monday.
Technology coordinator Stacy Haase gave a presentation to the board that included information on the School District’s new web page and their Facebook page and other social media.
“It has been a busy first year in my new role,” Haase said. “The new web site has been well received. It is now one year old and we have done a lot of tweaking to it.”
She reported that the school’s Facebook page has 2,186 followers, and has had over 62,000 page reaches.
From March 1 to June 1 there were 69 new likes and 17,000 visits to the Facebook page.
“We post a lot of videos of kids in the classroom and other activities and those are very popular,” Haase explained.
The top three items have been the videos of the seniors and the young kids going through the halls at the end of the school year, the Ag classes helping plant the pots in downtown Blue Earth, and a feature on EDDY award winner Crystal Smith.
Haase also gave an update on the new BEA Schools app, which has been downloaded 612 times so far.
In other business at the meeting, the BEA Board:
• Approved miscellaneous pay rates for a variety of duties at the school, from ticket sellers to speech judges.
• Approved the activity/meal rates for 2024-2025. One change was a lower senior citizen rate of $5 for attending athletic events instead of the usual adult fee of $7.
• Approved the board member reimbursement rates of $600 annually for board chair and clerk, $50 per meeting up to a half day, and $150 for a full day meeting. The rates are the same as in the past.
• Approved the hiring of elementary teachers Kaytlyn Wensauer and Madison Armstrong, the resignation of elementary teacher Robin Beach-Olson and the retirement of bus driver Gary Gack.