More activities lead to higher student GPA

By Mary Zielinski
For the fourth consecutive year, Mid-Prairie students have shown that the more students are involve din extracurricular activities, the higher their GPA.

Activities and academics go hand-in-hand, the most involved do the best.

Mid-Prairie Activities Director Don Showalter, who started tracking the correlation between activities and academics fourth years ago, told the M-P Board Monday he Òwas not surpriseÓ that the positive correlation has held.
“Activities and academics go hand-in-hand,” he said, adding, “the most involved do the best.”
Part of the higher performance may be linked to the fact that students involved in activities have a much better attendance record. He found that 81 percent of all M-P students are involved in at least one activity during the year and 60 percent participate in more than one. Of the 92 students taking Advanced Placement classes, 84 (or 91 percent) were involved in at least one activity, he said.
The activities include spots, Fine Arts (band, chorus, speech, drama), FFA, FCCLA and service organizations. The success in activities, said Showalter, are linked to three things: coaching, parent, Boosters, administration and school board support, and student dedication to the activities.
“It also is very important that there is tremendous community support.”
Even more, though, he stressed that “We strive to have students fit in somewhere,” that efforts are made to guide each student toward an activity. But, he added, “Academics are the highest priority at Mid-Prairie.”
Prior to the start of the meeting, the Mid-Prairie Education Association had a brief reception to honor the board, and during the public forum faculty member Eric Thornton praised the board for being very “pro-education” and having a district where “there is a very upbeat morale.” He said part of that is because the board “thinks outside the box.”
In other business, the board:

• approved the formal resolutions to permit refinancing of the general obligation school bonds. Bids were opened at the last meeting and the low bid of approximately 2.3 percent interest from D. A. Davidson, Denver, Colorado, was accepted. The move will save the district $173,648 in interest costs;
  ¥received the high school building report showing a balance of $85,164 from the starting balance of $136,938 July 1, 2008;
• approved increases in student fees that raise lunch prices by ten cents, athletic supplies at the middle and high schools by $2, band uniform cleaning by $2. There will be no Kalona Before and After School program due to insufficient enrollment;
• approved a stipend increase for M-P administrators for the 2009-10 academic year with the provision the stipends will be discontinued if the sharing agreements with Keota cease in the future. The stipends provide $5,000 for each principal, $5,000 for the technology director, $1,000 for the WT lead teacher, $11,000 for the business manager and $18,500 for the superintendent and reflect the additional funds and additional duties from sharing with the Keota School District. If the agreement remains in force for three years, M-P also will received a total of $647,779 in state sharing incentive money. Cost for the superintendent and business manager is divided with Keota on a 65-35 and a 505-50 basis, respectively; and
• learned that M-P will received #179,969 for special education and $213,658 for Title I program from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (stimulus). However, said Superintendent Mark Schneider, “It’s a one-year deal and all the money must be spent.”