BLUE EARTH– The Blue Earth Area School Board took care of a lot of items during its relatively short, just over one hour, meeting on Monday.

That included hearing three reports dealing with food service, summer TREK and technology.

Travis Preuss, of Taffer, the company that operates the food service at BEA Schools, gave an update for the board that included some new items planned for next school year.

One of those is a new way for students to sign in for meals.

“It is a bio-metric finger scanning system,” Preuss says. “It will save time going through the line.”

Each student gets scanned once and five points are saved. Then, when they go through the line, they just put that finger on the scanner and go right through the line.

In years past each student had to give their name and five digit code.

“It is still a five-digit code, but now it is five points on their finger tip,” Preuss says. “Some young kids didn’t remember their code and some barely knew their name.”

Other reports were made by Molly Eckhardt about the sixth grade TREK trip to northern Minnesota, and staff member Stacy Haase giving an update on technology.

Eckhardt said the trip has been an annual event for 40 years, and detailed the different places the students visited during this year’s TREK.

Haase detailed the us of an AI (artificial intelligence) computer program called Magic School, which is being used by some BEA teachers for things such as freshening up lesson plans and assignments.

In other business at the meeting, the BEA Board:

— Approved a contract with Arrowhead Regional Computing Consortium (ARCC) to provide support for a student information program called Infinite Campus. The cost of the support for one year is $10,345.

— Approved renewing membership in the Minnesota Rural Education Association (MREA) at a fee of $2,269.

— Approved a list of miscellaneous pay for such things as substitute teacher pay, ticket sellers, clock keepers, concessions and more. Some, but not all, of the pay rates were increased.

The board also approved the prices and fees for various student activities and events from athletics to music, robotics and driver ed classes. Again, some, but not all, had been increased.

— Approved the pay rate for School Board members, at $600 annual for board chair and clerk, $75 per meeting up to half day and $175 per full day meeting. The board chair and clerk amounts are the same, and the meeting amounts were increased by $25 each.

— Approved receiving donations for Bucc-y Bag program from the Blue Earth Lions Club, CFS and Land O’ Lakes. They also approved a donation of 550 books from the Early Literacy Grant Program through Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF).

— Approved changes in personnel including: hiring Bianca Nagel as an elementary teacher; resignations from elementary teachers Keri Murphy and Lisa Paloma, paraprofessionals Angie Murphy and Elizabeth Hoefs and Molly More as a Title I coordinator/literacy coach: a contract with Molly More as Director of Curriculum and Instruction; retirement for high school science teacher Roger Schoenfelder.