The Mid-Prairie School District will resume a weekly 90-minute early dismissal on Wednesdays starting tomorrow.
Superintendent Mark Schneider says the district switched from a two-hour early out every other week to dismissing classes at 1:45 p.m. for the high school and middle school and 1:55 p.m. for East and West elementary schools every week on a trial run starting last October. He says the school board approved at their January 11th meeting to continue the policy after getting positive reviews from parents, “During the first semester, the early outs were used by teachers to provide lessons and learning activities to students that were stuck at home due to quarantine or to illness, so they (teachers) were better able to facilitate the learning with those children that were at home and that has been very successful. We got a lot of great compliments from parents that they appreciate all of the work the teachers have done to reach out to those students who may be at home for a
The Mid-Prairie School District is getting help purchasing two new school buses thanks to a grant program available through the U.S. Department of Transportation.
District Business Manager Jeff Swartzentruber says the almost $53,000 VW Settlement Grant will allow the district to cut the cost of one bus by nearly 50-percent, “When we talked at the (school) board level we talked that this grant was almost like a sale for us, buy one get the second half off because a school bus runs you about $100-108,000 was the price this time, and that’s a full-size bus.”
Swartzentruber says the district tries to replace two buses every year and this year they will purchase two propane-fueled buses, bringing their total fleet of propane buses to eight. He says propane buses allow for more seating capacity and they get better mileage which is very important for a rural school district like Mid-Prairie
In Touch with Southeast Iowa
On this episode of “In Touch with Southeast Iowa,” KCII’s Mark Pitz talks with Mark Schneider, Superintendent of Mid-Prairie School District, about the sales of customized cornhole board games to raise funds for the school’s post prom festivities.