During a work session of the Mid-Prairie board of education on Oct. 26, superintendent Mark Schneider presented enrollment data for the district. Count day was Oct. 1.

The preliminary data, which will be finalized in November, shows that there are 1276.22 students enrolled in Mid-Prairie schools, which is a decrease of only .1 student from last year. Schneider said that of the 32 schools in the Grant Wood Area Education Agency, about 75% of them lost enrollment due to various reasons.

455 students from 22 other districts are open enrolled in Mid-Prairie schools, including 209 in full-time K-12, which is up five students from last year. 242 students open enrollment students are part of the Home School Assistance program, which is up from 186 the year prior.

Conversely, only 36 resident students are open enrolled out of the Mid-Prairie district.

“It’s very good news for the district,” Schneider said. “It’s a testament to the administrators and the teachers. There’s obviously something here that people want. 455 students that open-enroll in your district is pretty telling.”

Administrators from each school presented the board with the plans for if it became necessary to transition to a hybrid model. When school began on Aug. 24, Washington County showed a 6% 14-day rolling positivity rate for COVID-19. However, on Oct. 26, the county rate was 18.7%.

Should it become necessary to move school partly online, students will be split into two groups that will attend school on alternating days. “A” group would attend in-person classes on Mondays and Thursdays and “B” group would attend in-person on Tuesdays and Fridays. The groups would alternate every other Wednesday due to the current early-out schedule.

Middle School principal Marc Pennington said the “off days,” when students are learning at home, would look similar to how the district has handled quarantined students so far.

“A lot of work is done through Google Classroom. There are personal trackers we can use that staff are creating and have office hours for,” Pennington said. “Mind you, the staff is still teaching full-time on the off days… in my mind it would similar to how quarantine learning looks now in terms of things set up for kids to be productive at home.”

High school principal Jay Strickland said there would also be the possibility for students to Zoom in to the classroom when they are learning from home.

“After last spring, we want to try to keep it as similar to as school day as possible, which, obviously when they’re remote, is going to be challenging to sit in front of a computer,” Strickland said. “But if the teacher then would transition from instruction to individual learning, they’d be able to do that at home just like they would in the classroom.”

In other business, Activities Director Tyler Hotz presented the plan for facilities use for non-school sponsored activities over the winter. Organizations wishing to use Mid-Prairie facilities such as gyms, cafetoriums or student centers, must fill out an Indoor Facility Usage Form and adhere to regulations that limit the spread of COVID-19.

Face coverings will be required for all visitors, with the exception of individuals participating in physical activities. Visitors should monitor their temperature and refrain from entering the facility if they have any symptoms of COVID-19. Visitors should also provide their own hand sanitizer.

Organizations will be limited to one time slot per week in the Indoor Facility and two time slots per week in any gym.

At this time, Mid-Prairie has not determined guidelines for facility usage pertaining to tournaments or games.