(Marion) – It’s back to school today for Marion ISD students. This makes the Marion ISD the final district in Guadalupe County to open its doors. All other districts, including Seguin, Navarro, and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISDs began classes last week.
Marion ISD Superintendent Don Beck said he feels a strong sense of momentum heading into the year after a student-led convocation held last Friday.
“I’m excited. We are all excited,” said Dr. Beck. “We started off the year with a bang last Friday and we are excited about the momentum that we have generated from there. We had our students lead and actually plan for the entire convocation for our teachers and our staff to be part of and the students led the whole thing. I spoke for about five minutes. The other hour and a half was all students. So that was a whole lot of fun, and it was a great start to refocus us on what this is all about and the kids did a great job of executing the plan they had in place. I’m really excited about the year.”
Dr. Beck said the district is also looking forward to several bond projects finally being completed. He says those projects, including new facilities at the high school are expected to open later this school year. With that being said, Dr. Beck encourages plenty of patience when it comes to traffic and parking.
“It’s going to be like last year, especially the high school parents and middle school parents — pack their patience,” said Beck. “We have coined the phrase ‘we are making sausage.’ Everybody knows how sausage is made, or at least around in this area – it’s a little messy and nasty, but in the end, when you cook the sausage, it is delicious. So, right now, we are in the middle of this bond build at the high school, so parking is going to be at a premium for the next year – and football season in particular – but the community has been fantastic up until this point. I think it will continue to be, but that’s going to be the thing. As new people move in, we have to run things, but we do plan on getting through this and in the end, getting a much better product because of the times that we are going through now.”
Not only is the Marion ISD launching a new school year, but the district will also be busy this fall campaigning for a $60 million bond election. As reported earlier by the Seguin Daily News, the continued growth in the district has led to the proposed bond issue calling for a new elementary school, the purchase of land for a future middle school, new school buses, plus the construction of a maintenance and technology building.
The public is encouraged to learn more about the bond issue by visiting Marionisd.net. The election is slated for Tuesday, Nov. 2.