Wellman

Mid-Prairie Transportation Director Teresa Hartley gave the school board an update on the district’s need for bus drivers for extracurricular activities. 

Hartley told the board that she is currently the only substitute driver, although there are a few others who can occasionally help.

Finding bus drivers has continued to be a challenge for the district. Superintendent Brian Stone believes the district pays competitively compared with other districts in the area.

Hartley said one of the challenges is the process of obtaining a commercial driver’s license and the required endorsements.

“A lot of people come in and say, ‘I have a Class A.’ Well, you’ve got to go back down to get a permit to get your school bus and your passenger endorsement,” Hartley said.

Hartley said the district is already stretched thin covering its regular routes. She is currently the only substitute driver, and while a few others can help, their schedules are “very hit and miss.” She added that only one driver has offered to take activity trips this year.

In previous years, Hartley said parents and grandparents were often willing to drive because they wanted to attend their children’s or grandchildren’s activities.

“A lot of it was, we had parents or grandparents that wanted to go to their activity, and now we don’t have that near as much,” Hartley said.

The board also discussed pay for activity trips. Regular route drivers receive their normal route pay for the first two hours before moving to the activity rate of $19.32 per hour.

“If they’re a regular driver, they get their two hours, like their regular route pay, and then after those two hours, it goes into the activity pay, which is $19.32,” Hartley said.

Because of the shortage, the district has also used vans to transport students and coaches to some events.

Stone told the board the district is exploring an incentive to encourage more drivers to take activity trips.

Under the proposed incentive, a driver would receive an additional $200 after completing five activity trips. There would be no limit to how many times a driver could earn the incentive during the school year, meaning another five trips would result in another $200.

Alternative Kindergarten discussion

The Mid-Prairie school board decided back in July to not offer Alternative Kindergarten for the 2026-27 school year because of enrollment numbers, instead moving forward with six kindergarten sections.

Board member Kirah Johnson did some additional research into other Alternative Kindergarten programs around the state to give the board a better idea of what other districts are doing.

Johnson reached out to several districts and received information from Johnston and Ankeny, two districts much larger than Mid-Prairie.

Johnston offers a half-day developmental kindergarten program, while the other program discussed is full day.

Johnson said about 9% of Johnston’s kindergarten-eligible students choose developmental kindergarten. Johnston has around 420 kindergarten students, and Johnson said applying that same percentage to Mid-Prairie would amount to about nine or 10 students, which is similar to the number Mid-Prairie had enrolled in AK.

The other district had a higher percentage of kindergarten-eligible students participate, nearly twice Johnston’s percentage.

While looking at the programs, Johnson said she found that they did not appear to be as restricted as she had previously thought. The programs still follow Iowa’s kindergarten standards and students take the required assessments, but there appears to be flexibility in how the curriculum is taught and paced.

Johnson explained that if students do not reach certain benchmarks, they are prescribed a certain number of intervention minutes each day. One of the programs essentially treats AK as an intervention program and builds those additional minutes into its schedule from the beginning.

After researching the programs, Johnson said she believes there is flexibility in how an AK program can operate

“There’s all kinds of flexibility. So the AK that we all remember and want is still possible,” Johnson said.

She later emphasized that the programs she researched are different from Mid-Prairie.

“What I really wanted to know after we tabled it was: Is it possible? Is the way we’ve all thought of and experienced AK still on the table in Iowa? It seems like it is, but there are big differences between these two programs and what we have here.”

Update on the bond referendum

With the November election getting closer, Stone gave the board an update on the district’s communication efforts regarding the bond referendum.

Stone said the district still has plenty of work to do before the election but believes communication has gone well so far. He asked board members whether they had any additional questions, concerns or ideas for getting information to residents.

Stone said students are designing yard signs and are also planning a “reverse Halloween” to help spread information.

“They’re going to do a reverse Halloween, where they come to your house, give you a flyer, and then you can give them candy,” Stone said.

Later in the discussion, Johnson suggested having board members available at a local coffee shop or library to answer residents’ questions about the bond.

“If you want to have two board members sit at the coffee shop one evening or at the library to answer any questions about the bond,” Johnson said.

The board also discussed how other districts are promoting similar projects, including through social media and Snapchat. Vice President Jake Snider said he had seen another district using Snapchat to get information out to residents, but added that Mid-Prairie is “doing a fantastic job” with its communication.

Other business

The school board was also shown the graduation calendar for 2027. The final day of school is scheduled for May 21, with the suggested graduation date being May 23. Graduation is typically held on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, but that would fall on May 30 this year, which would create several logistical issues, according to the district.

The board also discussed the superintendent evaluation and selected four standards to use this year: Standard 1, Mission, Vision and Core Values; Standard 4, Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment; Standard 6, Professional Capacity of School Personnel; and Standard 8, Meaningful Engagement of Families and Community.

Next meeting

The next Mid-Prairie school board meeting will be its business meeting on Monday, Oct. 12, at 6:15 p.m. in the Central Office Community Room.