MARSHALL — With a $29.8 million school building referendum election just two weeks away, the Marshall Public Schools District is offering voters the opportunity to get questions answered and tours of West Side Elementary.

The public meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday inside the West Side Elementary gymnasium. Guided tours of the facility will start at 6 p.m. West Side is the school site that is targeted to be decommissioned if the May 14 referendum is approved by voters.

“We’ll have someone who can take your property tax statement and tell you what (the impact of the referendum) means for you,” district superintendent Scott Monson said. “And if there are any conceptual questions or any building-related things that maybe we can’t answer, someone from our architectural firm will be there.”

The referendum is a single-question ballot that includes:

• New second through fourth grade elementary school located on a 52-acre site near the existing Marshall Middle School.

• Three-classroom Early Childhood addition at Park Side Elementary, improvements to serve Park Side first grade students and removal of the existing portable classroom.

• Centralized Early Childhood programming at Park Side Elementary and providing additional space at Marshall Middle School

• Safety and security improvements at Park Side Elementary, the new elementary school, MATEC and Marshall High School

• West Side Elementary to be decommissioned, demolished, prepared for future development and sold

Monson said the new elementary school would consist of nine sections for each grade second through fourth.

“We think that will accommodate our enrollment projections,” he said. “We also have to make sure we have adequate space for special education, EL (English Learners) and just intervention programs in general. In some cases now, we might have two or three (intervention) teachers working in one small classroom, with short divider walls to try and separate the space. It’s very difficult for kids to focus.”

The project cost estimate for the new elementary school carries the highest price tag, at $26,105,400. Park Side Elementary School additions and alterations is estimated to cost $3,030,500, while security enhancements at Park Side, Marshall High School and MATEC are projected to be $664,100.

“Every site except the middle school will have safety and security projects and measures put in place through the referendum,” Monson said. “The reason we’re not including Marshall Middle School is because we got a $480,000 grant to do the enhancements there. Bids are currently being accepted for those now.”

Monson said the timeline for having students in the new elementary school is fall of 2021. If the referendum passes, the early childhood classrooms and programming would be relocated to Park Side, freeing up a lot of extra space at the middle school.

“There would be 7,000 more square feet at the middle school that can be used,” Monson said. “But we still have plans at the middle school for classroom space, especially for exploration and introducing kids to diesel mechanics and woodworking — different things they could have an interest in as a career. They can start to develop that in middle school and that could lead to them taking those courses at the high school and going to tech school or going right into the industry.”

Of course, athletics is also included in the long-range plan.

“There would be attention to the outside grounds — our athletic fields, the Marshall Middle School track, which is in need of some investment, as well as the baseball fields,” Monson said. “We have to be making sure we’re able to meet the needs of all of our teams, as far as games and practices go.”

Open voting continues at the Marshall Public School District office at 401 South Saratoga until May 14 (8 a.m. to 4 p.m.)