At a special meeting on Sept. 8, the Mid-Prairie School Board carried a motion to maximize spectator seating at athletic events while still maintaining social distancing and limiting crowd size. Each participant in an event, such as an athlete, coach, or marching band member, will be allotted four tickets for outdoor events or three tickets for indoor events to distribute to family or friends. The remaining tickets will be disseminated via a lottery system to the student body.

As of Tuesday, Sept. 8, Mid-Prairie Community School District had six students with positive COVID-19 tests and an additional 130 students absent due to quarantine.

Board member Jeremy Pickard stressed that the activity attendance policy is not just a district issue, but also a public health issue.

“I do think that quarantining is going to be the thing that’s going to do us in,” he said. “We have to figure out a way to stay six feed apart.”

Activities Director Tyler Hotz initially proposed that the student body should not attend the games and the only tickets available be those allotted to each participant.

But the board encouraged Hotz and the administration to find a way to allow students to attend in some capacity.

“I just have a real hard time telling students, who are supposed to be the ones able to participate in activities, that they can’t come,” said board member Jeremy Gugel. “It just seems really weird. It seems backwards, to say ‘This is your school, but you can’t come.’”

Allowing a student section is tricky, however, due to the necessity to quarantine any student who had close contact with COVID-positive individual. “Close contact” is defined by public health officials as being within six feet of that person for 15 minutes or more, whether or not face coverings are worn.

“I’m going to be honest, if I turn around and look at our student section that has 70 kids standing shoulder-to-shoulder, that makes me a little uneasy,” said head football coach Pete Cavanagh. “Some of those kids that were in that student section got positive tests. I’m not saying it’s because of that, but it just doesn’t feel right to put them back in that same situation.”

Board member Gabrielle Frederick introduced the motion to allow the allotted tickets per participant plus a to-be-determined number of student tickets to put in a lottery, depending on how many students can safely be spaced six feet apart in the stands. The motion was seconded by Denise Chittick and carried 6-1, with Mary Allred casting the dissenting vote.

“We’re here to educate these kids, and to educate these kids, they have to be in the building,” said Frederick. “We owe it to these student athletes to let them play, even if we have to limit the number of people who can come watch them play.”

General admission spectators who do not have a ticket given to them by a participating student will be turned away at the gate. But the athletes will be able to have some family and friends watch them compete and some students will be able to cheer from the stands, as well.

Additionally, all sporting events will be live-streamed. The link to watch virtually can be found on the district homepage at mphawks.org.

“We have to balance the number one priority, keeping kids in school, with all the extra things that come along with that,” Frederick said.