The Mid-Prairie school district is expediting their hiring process for middle school athletic coaches.

The board took a second reading of the changes to policy 410.5 at their meeting July 10, and a motion carried to approve the changes. Superintendent Mark Schneider describes the former policy, “We have more and more students who are going out for athletics and activities at the middle school. In the past we just basically had one coach for each sport and then when we have a large number of students we have to go back to the board and have an assistant hired.”

The policy formerly required that if there were an excess number of students the head coach would contact the athletic director, and then the athletic director would contact Schneider, who would have to give a proposal to the board. The new approved policy will allow assistant coaches to be hired more quickly, “This policy gives the administration the authority to go ahead and hire that second coach if the number of students gets above 20 in any activity.”

The policy will now state that on the first day of an activity if there are more than 20 kids involved, the head coach will contact the athletic director, who will then contact Schneider who can authorize that a second coach be hired.