New contract a big topic at BEA meeting
A new 3-year superintendent’s contract discussed several times during board meeting

Blue Earth Area teachers Molly Eckhardt, left, and Megan Sukalski present a proposed calendar to the School Board at the meeting last Monday, above.
There was a lot of discussion that concerned Blue Earth Area superintendent Mandy Fletcher during the monthly School Board on Monday, Jan. 13.
It had to do with several things, but the major discussion came near the end of the meeting when the board looked at a new 3-year contract with Fletcher.
A motion and a second to approve the contract was followed by a lot of discussion.
School Board member Mark Franta questioned the contract.
“How are we holding the superintendent accountable?” he asked.
School Board chairperson Sara Hauskins reminded Franta that earlier in the meeting she had reported on a special closed meeting held on Dec. 9, which was to do a half year evaluation of the superintendent, where Fletcher was found to be making “effective progress” on meeting all of her goals.
Franta said he felt the superintendent needed to be evaluated closer.
“We need to make education and student preparedness a number one priority,” Franta said. “We need to look at test results.”
Board member Ted Armon said test results are improving, maybe just not as fast as they want.
Earlier in the meeting Armon had reported on the contract negotiations that had gone on, and said there was good give and take during the negotiations.
The question of salary was also discussed. The contract calls for a substantial increase for the superintendent, to over $160,000 per year, with increases each year.
Earlier in the meeting Armon had explained the increase, pointing out that the BEA District is in the lower end of the middle of superintendent salaries in the area.
“We have been doing one percent or two percent increases in the past,” Armon said. “So we do need to increase it more to keep up to the current market.”
He added that they looked around at many districts in this area, and the increase is not the biggest amount of increase or salary.
In the end the board voted in favor of the contract at the stated salary amount. The vote was 6-0, with Franta voting no.
After the vote board member Stacey Beyer stated that she was seeing positive changes to the district since Fletcher had been hired.
“We had to have budget reductions and staff and programs were reduced in the past,” she said. “Now we have bounced back and the audit showed how it is so much better.”
Teachers Molly Eckhardt and Megan Sukalski gave the board members an update from the school calendar committee.
The two said the consensus of the committee is to leave the calendar pretty much the same as this current year.
The current calendar includes an early start to the school year, with school beginning in August before the Labor Day weekend.
The board will consider the calendar later in the school year before authorizing it.
The start of the meeting included electing the School Board officers. All of the current officers were re-elected. That includes Sara Hauskins as board chair, Ted Armon as vice chair, Stacey Beyer as clerk and Lindsay Mensing as treasurer.
Three board members were also sworn into office by board chair Sara Hauskins. They included Ted Armon, Lindsay Mensing and Gary Armon.
Ted Armon and Mensing were re-elected to their positions on the board, while Gary Armon is a newly elected member of the board.
The board also discussed committee assignments and just a few changes were made from the past year’s assignments.
Also approved were several personnel changes including: new hires Danielle Garlick (paraprofessional) and Rebecca Lunn (full time substitute teacher); contract with superintendent Mandy Fletcher for 2025-2028); lane changes for Jennifer Kafka, Heather Hernandez, Peter Koenig, Dani Morris, Sara Albright and Nick Milbrandt.