STATE OF THE MARION SCHOOL DISTRICT

Between a solid administrative team, stable staff and bold school board, there is good momentum in the western Turner County district. A renovation project planned for this summer is only expected to help.

Based on enrollment — which is so often used to measure how well a school district is doing — Marion appears to be healthy. In a time when many smaller rural schools are struggling to maintain students, the western Turner County district’s head count is actually up.

According to numbers provided by the business office, Marion’s official count stood at 215 at the start of the year — up 14 from two years ago. From kindergarten through 12th grade, every class is in the 12 to 17 range, with the eighth grader class the largest at 20.

“Our enrollment is actually larger than that now; we’ve had some kids move in since the count day,” said Brian Brosnahan, who is in his second year as the district superintendent. “Any small school district that can continually say, ‘Hey, we’re stable or we’re up’ is a win.”

But enrollment alone isn’t what appears to have the Marion Public School primed for a good run going forward. A boots-on-the-ground leadership team that includes Brosnahan and principal Bill Leberman has stabilized an administration that has recently been in flux, and the district is benefiting from a solid staff. In fact, Brosnahan says, a forward-thinking school board has already extended all certified contracts through the 2025-26 year.

And then there’s the most public showing of what could very well give the school the kind of momentum it hasn’t seen in generations — a forthcoming building project.

That hit the public sphere more than a year ago when the Marion School Board began discussing a major capital project that would have seen a significant overhaul of the district’s dated and cobbled-together campus, including the elimination of the oldest part of the campus — the three-story structure built in 1914.

Of course, that never happened. Two general obligation bond elections that would have used new tax dollars to help pay for phases one and two of a three-phase $14 million project failed to gain the 60% majority required.

In January of last year, voters rejected the proposal when 188 of the 387 ballots cast went against the plan, giving it a 51.55% affirmative — not enough.

Then in June, voters said no a second time to a slightly pared down proposal, and this time the plan didn’t even earn a majority vote, failing 216 to 204.

School officials were quick to honor the public’s directive.

“The mood on the board is like, ‘OK, this didn’t work, so let’s move on and do what we can with what we have,’” board president Scott Tieszen told The Courier following the vote. “There’s not hostility, there aren’t bad feelings. We obviously would have liked for it to turn out different, but it’s not the end of the world. We viewed it as, let’s try it and let’s see what happens, and we have now found out.”

Changing course

In the months that have followed, school officials have worked on a Plan B using funds that would not require additional tax revenue. In fact, just this month, those working on the project — including CO-OP Architecture, which has been involved since the beginning —  are closing in on plans for a $4.3 million renovation project that would completely overhaul both the first and second floor of the “L shape” that makes up the district’s 1939 and 1958 structures. That includes the primary entrance facing the west, the main office and classroom space.

Brosnahan said the district is planning to use up to $1.1 million cash on hand and finance the rest through capital outlay certificates, which use budgeted capital outlay dollars based on the existing tax levy and are paid off over time.

“Obviously the voters of the district decided that what we were asking for is something they weren’t willing to support, yet we really felt that doing something was a necessity,” Brosnahan said. “We are in need of updates, not only aesthetically, but mechanically, electrically, structurally and functionally as a building.”

The project would see a floor-to-ceiling overhaul main office, hallways and classrooms in the 1939 and 1958 wings, including ceilings and windows, lighting, HVAC, electrical and technology. The plan is also to repurpose existing space — specifically the preschool room — to allow for new locker rooms that face north toward the high school gym.

Marion currently has only two locker rooms, which is problematic for hosting doubleheaders.

“It makes it difficult because we’ve got teams in the music room or other spaces that just aren’t meant to be changed in or utilized for those purposes,” Brosnahan says.

The renovation project would include two new home locker rooms and two, smaller locker rooms for visitors.

“Space wise it’s not massive,” says the superintendent. “But it’s very functional.”

The project also included an extended vestibule in the main entrance west of the primary doors used for entry; “Not only is that more convenient and functional for us as a school district because it provides better flow,” Brosnahan says, “it’s much, much safer.”

The 1914 structure will continue to be used for the time being, “but we would like to see that go down at some point, but now it provides us with so much space and we don’t have any plans to build on; we just can’t eliminate that space and continue to function effectively.”

Brosnahan said the district hopes to have renderings completed in the next three to four weeks with bids going out by the second week of March. That would provide about an eight-week window to start the project after graduation, with the majority of the work finished by the time students and staff return to school in fall.

The hope is that the project only bolsters the growing momentum of the district, despite the setback of two failed bond elections.

“I’m really excited and really hope there’s some school and community pride behind what the school board has done here to step up,” said Brosnahan. “They really are putting themselves out on a limb here; with me not being here for more than a year-and-a-half now, I don’t know all the history, and I don’t know all the bumps and bruises that Marion has gone through — I’ve been told many stories. But to get to this point now is really exciting for them, and hopefully it is for the kids and the community, as well.”