Though people wandering around stores and restaurants in Mercer County Wednesday didn’t seem too concerned about who the next president will be, school employees and students were keeping tabs.

Jeremy Zipay, an American government teacher at Greenville High School, timed his lessons along with the election to educate his students about the electoral college. Now that they know about the electoral college, he said, the students can appreciate what’s going on and understand what happened with the Florida votes.

"They’re able to understand what I’m telling them now because they know how the electoral college works," Zipay said.

Faculty and staff at Sharpsville High School and Delahunty Elementary School in Hermitage kept up with the election throughout Wednesday.

In a mock election on Nov. 1, Delahunty students chose Vice President Al Gore as the next president. Gore won by 22 votes, said building secretary Linda Koerth.

CNN was broadcast all day in Commodore Perry Junior/Senior High School classrooms. Sherri Carnevale, secondary life skills teacher, and her students coordinated a mock election for the faculty.

Mrs. Carnevale also helped American government teacher Barry Nelson with a mock election for the student body. Texas Gov. George W. Bush won both mock elections.

Mrs. Carnevale said Nelson had spoken to her class earlier about the electoral college and electoral votes vs. popular votes.

Bush was also the winner in a mock election held in grades 4 to 6 at Reynolds Elementary School. Teacher Laura Kubyako coordinated the election, which was complete with private voting booths, ballots and parent volunteers. The results were announced Wednesday morning.

Suzanne Allison, building secretary at Reynolds Elementary, said some classrooms were keeping televisions on throughout the day to keep up with the results.

Becky Ryder, building secretary at Grove City Middle School, reported the students were "very interested" in the election and that it was "being discussed a lot." Televisions were on in social studies classrooms as well as a few others in case of a major announcement, she said.

Clara Hazlett, secretary at Oakview Elementary in West Middlesex, said she tried to watch the latest breaking developments in the election.

"In my free moments I reach for the remote and click over real quick," Mrs. Hazlett said.

The kids were talking about the election a lot, Mrs. Hazlett said. She said she took her grandson Bobby, an Oakview fifth-grader, to the voting booth with her. She said it was "really a thrill" for him to see her vote.