Mid-Prairie Schools apply for grants to aid special education students

WELLMAN - The Mid-Prairie Community School District has applied for grants to fund renovations and new equipment to create a more inclusive environment for its special education students.

During a regular meeting of the Mid-Prairie School Board on, Monday, March 25, board members unanimously approved the submission of two grant proposals to the Washington County Riverboat Foundation, which will help create job opportunities and accessability for students with special needs.

'The Washington County Riverboat Foundation puts up grant applications twice as year,” said district superintendent Mark Schneider. 'Once in April and once in October.”

When all the grant applications are in, the foundation board will gather and decide whether or not to approve Mid-Prairie's grant. Late last year, the foundation board approved a $95,188 grant, which allowed the district to renovate the High School Library with a coffee shop where special education students are able to work.

If approved, the set of grants the district is requesting will also help to make school facilities more inclusive for students with special needs.

Titled 'All Aboard” and 'Going Green” respectively, if receieved, will provide the district with funds for a handicap school bus and replacing panels on the school's greenhouse. Should the 'All Aboard” grant be received, the district will get $56,510 toward the $117,000 project to include wheelchair friendly seating on a standard school bus. The requested $56,510 would cover the cost of including handicap seating on the bus and the district would pay for the remainder.

'The way we serve (handicapped students) now is with cars and vans and things like that,” Schneider said. 'As we're thinking about student population and what's coming up, we'll more than likely need to use this, especially if students want to get involved in activities so that we don't have to send a separate bus. This brings them into more of an inclusive environment.”

Schneider estimates there would be roughly half a dozen seats for handicapped students and about 40 standard passenger seats.

For 'Going Green,” if received, the grant would fund $39,705 of a $52,943 project which would replace panels on the district's 20-year-old greenhouse, renovations to an outdoor classroom and the installation of a school garden at West Elementary. Like with the coffee shop included in the library renovations, Schneider said the district will begin looking into opportunities for the greenhouse to provide special education students with job options.

According to Schneider, the Riverboat Foundation usually has an awards ceremony in May, at which time the district will know whether or not it has been awarded its desired grants.

The school board will meet next on April 8.