BEA Ag teacher Nick Milbrandt addressed the BEA School Board on Monday night about the FFA Crop Plot project.

With a full agenda the Blue Earth Area School Board took care of a multitude of items at their meeting on Monday night, May 12.

Two of the items had to do with staffing issues, specifically recruiting and retaining staff.

Superintendent Mandy Fletcher said one big concern at the moment is not teaching staff but rather another area.

Bus drivers.

“We are anticipating there is going to be a big need to hire more bus drivers,” Fletcher told the board. “We plan to ramp up our recruiting efforts this summer.”

Fletcher said that it is not just an issue at BEA, but it seems to be everywhere, calling it an “incredible need” across the state.

A recent recruitment effort did get some response, especially for van drivers. But by this next fall more bus drivers will be needed. Later in the meeting the board would accept the resignations of two current bus drivers.

BEA Transportation director Leanne Scholl does a very good job of making sure all of BEA’s nine and a half routes have drivers, Fletcher said, adding that the School District transports 700 students every day.

“We want to get new bus drivers hired now, so they can take the training and get licensed this summer and be ready by fall,” Fletcher said. “We will have to pay for training and mileage for the training.”

She said that there are many benefits to the district for operating their own bus service, but it does require a lot of recruiting drivers.

The other staffing issue came up during a report by art teacher Sara Albright.

She gave an update on a grant the district had received for mentoring new teachers.

“The grant is for three years,” Albright explained. “This school year was our first year with it.”

All new teachers at BEA, whether it is their first year of teaching or they have been a teacher for many years, is assigned a mentor teacher.

“This first year was highly effective,” Albright said. “We see it as being highly effective to retain new staff members. They will have a mentor for one or two years, so they will be totally integrated into the BEA family.”

Albright said retaining teachers is an issue all across southern Minnesota and elsewhere, as more and more teachers leave the profession after one or two years.

The board members heard two special updates from staff members at the beginning of the meeting.

Ag teacher Nick Milbrandt gave an update on the FFA Crop Plot for this year. The plot is on property just south of Wilson Field in Blue Earth that is owned by the school.

Milbrandt said the students make all the decisions and do a lot of the work on the plot.

“We have an agronomist assist with helping them with decisions on what to do, what to plant, and there are farmers who lend us equipment to plant and harvest,” Milbrandt told the board members. “The students have decided to once again do half corn and half beans.”

Milbrandt said five students were doing the planting that very day, and he had, in fact, just come from the plot in time to give his report to the board.

“The heavy rain last spring really hurt us,” Milbrandt explained. “We ended up planting oats as a cover crop. We are hoping for a much better year this year, just like all the farmers in the area.”

BEA art teacher Albright was also at the meeting to give an update on the art classes and the BEA Art Club.

“The students took 17 pieces of art to a competition and received 11 Excellent rating awards and four Superior rating awards,” Albright said. “Plus we had three Spotlight Award winners who were able to take their work to the State Art Show.”

There were eight schools at the competition and only 11 Spotlight Award winners, so BEA had three of the 11.

“I am very proud of all these students,” Albright said. “They are all very talented.”

In other business at the meeting the BEA School Board:

• Passed a resolution, with no discussion, to leave the Big South Conference and join the new South Central Conference.

The reasons to make the change had been discussed at a previous meeting, and included being able to compete against schools the same size as BEA and cut down on travel distances.

The change will not be effective until the fall of 2027.

• Approved a resolution adopting a Long-Term Facilities Maintenance 10-Year Plan. The board heard an update on projects from maintenance supervisor Jim Wirkus.

• Approved the SRO (School Resource Officer) contract with Faribault County.

• Approved the Master Agreement with the three school principals for the fiscal years 2025-2028.

• Approved a resolution for membership in the Minnesota State High School League for the 2025-2026 year.

• Approved the annual bids for things such as softener salt and snow removal, and also approved the acceptance of donations from the Blue Earth Eagles Club and the American Legion Post for the BPA and Robotics Clubs.

• Approved personnel changes including the hiring of Rhea Hecker as a paraprofessional and the resignations of bus drivers Bob Evans and Bob Larson.

• Had the first readings of 39 school policies. Some had minor changes and some had language changes due to state or federal mandates. They will be voted on at the next meeting.