(Marion) — The Marion ISD will be deciding whether approving new campus facilities is the direction to go in tackling growth and security throughout the district.
Starting today, voters in the Marion ISD will be casting their ballots early in the May 4 Election. On the ballot is a $22 million bond issue. As reported earlier, the proposed bond issue is committed to not only renovation but also new construction at its elementary, middle and high school campuses.
Superintendent Kelly Walters Lindholm says to maintain smaller class sizes and ideal learning environments, additional classroom space is required at the Krueger Campus. Projects include a dozen new classrooms, full service kitchen, new covered outdoor activity pavilion, the renovation of the old gym into a cafetorium with stage and music class, renovating the warming kitchen into a new library and renovating the existing library into a multi-purpose learning center.
Other district wide campuses include the construction of a new middle school AG/CTE Shop and a new two story academic addition to Marion High School
Lindholm says the projects have not only been designed around but are based on the district’s rapid growth as well as its need to better secure its campuses.
She says the bulk of dollars will go into the elementary school while the remaining $9.2 million will be invested into the secondary campuses.
Lindholm says it’s been the district’s commitment from the very beginning to ensure that each dollar being requested will be invested wisely.
“The thing that we have been trying to tell folks because I’ve held a number of community meetings and opportunities for people to come and hear about the bond is that the board is being very diligent in attempting to be frugal in this matter. In others words, we are very aware that we are going to the public and asking for additional money and the board is definitely wanting to make sure that the money that we have already received from the community is being used wisely and invested properly into the facilities and in being used by the district and going forward in this project that is, of course, their intention. For us too, at this point, to go down the path of trying to add classrooms and renovate where we can rather than immediately going out and saying ‘well, we need to build a whole brand new school.’ This one is $22 million and we feel like we are increasing our capacity Pre K-12 versus a brand new campus that would probably run $40 to $50 million and only affect potentially a limited number of grade levels. The board is really attempting to look at this from the big picture and make sure that we are utilizing the funds and impacting the entire district to allow us to work through this growth process,” said Lindholm.
According to Lindholm, the M&O (maintenance and operations) side of the tax rate is currently at $1.17. The tax implications, if voters say yes, would be an additional 18 cents to the current rate of 18 cents for the I&S (interest and sinking) side of the tax rate. The additional increase would bump the I&S total to 36 cents. If approved, the current total tax rate of $1.35 would then increase to $1.53.
In addition to the $22 million facilities bond issue, Marion ISD voters will also be deciding on new members of the board of trustees.
Five candidates are seeking one of two available seats on the school board. The candidates include Incumbent Kevin “Bubba” Kunde, Incumbent J.C. Batey along with David Karras, Jamie Mote and Lora Henslee.
Early voting in the Marion ISD will be held today through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Marion Community Library. The schedule will continue on Monday and Tuesday, April 29-30 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.