BLUE EARTH– The Blue Earth Area School Board got an update on technology at the school during its meeting on 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.

One major change was in the rate for substitute teachers which was set at $175 per day.

— 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.