With the Mid-Prairie school district opting for a full return to in-person learning, the question heading into the school year was how well classes would be able to social distance.

After Monday’s first day of school, administrators had a better picture of the situation.

Principals reported smaller than normal class sizes to the school board at Monday night’s meeting.

“Preschool and kindergarten are at 13 or 14,” West Elementary Principal Bill Poock said. “Third grade has 18 and 19, and fourth grade has 19 and 20.”

East Elementary Principal Robin Foster said the class sizes vary in her building.

“It just depends on the classroom,” she said. “I have about 12-15 kids per classroom, just depending on the (room) size.”

Middle School Principal Marc Pennington said that more than 90% of sixth through eighth grade students are attending school in person.

“I guess we’re talking almost 20 in a group there,” Pennington said. “In fifth grade, we’re 14-16, give or take a little bit.”

High school in-person enrollment is at 335, according to Principal Jay Strickland.

“Our cores (classes) are still packed, but I think it’s had an impact on our electives and some of our specialty core classes,” Strickland said.

The drop in in-person class sizes is due to a number of families opting for the district’s new virtual learning academy and the Home School Assistance Program.

Virtual learning academy acting Principal Frank Slabaugh said that online enrollment is currently at 190.

HSAP Director Rachel Kerns said enrollment is up by more than 70 students this year and estimated that approximately 20 of those are students who would normally be attending in-person classes.

The numbers will fluctuate throughout the week because parents have until Aug. 28 to make their final enrollment decisions.

“We had a family of three go virtual today, so it’s still pretty fluid,” Pennington said.

Poock added that some students changed from virtual to in-person on Sunday night.

The administrators also reported no issues with the face covering requirement.

The district is allowing students to wear hats with face shields while the face covering requirement is in place.

“I bet over half of our student body had on hats,” Pennington said. “It’s a huge motivator for face coverings in our building.

“A lot requested shields at the end of the day.”

Overall, the first day of school went smoothly.

“Teachers and staff worked their tails off,” Poock said. “They had to rethink a lot of things, and everything went really smooth.”

“I made the rounds. I thought everything went exceptionally well, other than the air conditioning,” Superintendent Mark Schneider said.

The only glitch of the day was a malfunctioning air conditioning unit at East Elementary, which caused issues with temperatures in the 90s.

“We do have a technician coming (Tuesday) morning,” Schneider said. “Hopefully, they’ll be able to hotwire the controls. If not, it may be a short day for East Elementary.”