OWENSVILLE — The Gasconade County R-2 (GCR-2) Board of Education on March 16 approved a Cooperative Sponsor Agreement with Immanuel Lutheran School for middle school activities.

This allows for students at Immanuel Lutheran to participate in Owensville Middle School activities. Students from Immanuel Lutheran must be enrolled full-time at Immanuel, meet eligibility requirements established by MSHSAA and the GCR-2, and follow all academic, conduct, and attendance standards required by the district for athletes.

The agreement allows Immanuel students to participate in seventh- and eighth-grade football, cross country, basketball, wrestling, track and field, and volleyball.

The board discussed the co-op agreement at the March 16 board of education meeting, which was introduced by Superintendent Dr. Jeri Key Hardy.

“This is for our middle school kids who feed directly into the high school once they become ninth-graders. The Lutheran School has signed the agreement,” said Hardy. “We are asking that you allow  these students to participate in our middle school sports, since they are our students once they become freshmen.”

Board Member Debbie Landolt asked about the code of conduct.

“Do they sign any code of conduct of ours to participate?” asked Landolt.

Activities Director Zac Miller said that Immanuel Lutheran has looked at the code of conduct.

“They’ve looked over our code of conduct, our drug consent policy and everything,” said Miller. “They’ve agreed they’ll follow all the papers that our kids have to follow as well.”

Landolt asked Hardy what would happen if a student from Immanuel were to suffer an injury. Would the district be able to cover them through the student insurance?

“If one of them would get injured, does our insurance cover them? Or does our insurance (only) cover our students?” asked Landolt.

Hardy said the district provides activity insurance for students, and they would provide that same coverage for Immanuel Lutheran.

“So is that an additional cost for that insurance?” asked Landolt.

Hardy said the district pays per student for the insurance.

“It’s like $12 a student. But the parents on there, anytime your children are participating in extracurriculars, they have to show that they have insurance coverage,” said Hardy.

Insurance coverage for student playing sports at GCR-2 is $5.75 a student. The district paid for 1,733 students for a total of $10,914.75.

“The parents have to show proof of health insurance in case there is an injury,” said Hardy.

Landolt asked about transportation.

“Then, transportation, they’ll follow the same rules as ours?” asked Landolt.

“Yes, they would be under the same guidelines as our students,” said Hardy.

Landolt asked if parents would be responsible for bringing students to Owensville for practice and catching buses for games.

“Yes, they do,” said Hardy.

Landolt asked how Christ the King Lutheran High School in Leslie opening would affect the enrollment of the incoming freshman class from Rosebud.

“In our superintendent’s group, we’ve talked about that. They think as far as students who are going to the Lutheran School in Rosebud, they believe they will continue to feed into Owensville because it’s closer for them to come here than to go to Beaufort,” said Hardy. “When we talk about that in our Franklin County superintendent’s group, they don’t see a large loss. We’re just speculating, of course, but they don’t see it being a large loss because of that.”

The next board of education meeting will be at 6 p.m. on April 20 in the Administration Building.