Photo by Samantha Davis The Area Learning Center debuted its new location on the SMSU campus. Pictured is one of the classrooms in the ALC. There are also study common areas, more classrooms, a library and traditional principal offices.

MARSHALL — As the school year is officially underway across the board, the entirety of the Marshall Public School District has a slight decrease in the amount of students enrolled this year compared to the start of last school year. The new area learning center has also undergone construction over the summer and began classes in their new location. 

The district ended with a total of 2,506 students at the end of the 2023-24 year, and started with 2,586. This fall, there are 2,524 students enrolled and starting classes, showing about 62 less people. However, there is not a major cause to this besides natural movement. 

“As we had anticipated, our incoming kindergarten class is smaller than last year’s and our freshman class is smaller than last year’s group,” Superintendent Jeremy Williams said. “Those two groups are where we are seeing the biggest changes. We are noticing the other classes at the high school have higher enrollments than where they ended last year when we account for the grade progression.” 

In terms of starting last year with about 80 more students than where they ended, Williams said there also isn’t a significant reason or cause, and is a recurring trend. 

“It’s not unusual for us to have a swing in enrollment from the start to the end of the year.  By October first, we have a really good idea of where our enrollment is solidly at,” Williams said. “We often see families who move over the summer for a wide variety of reasons and don’t notify the school of their move, so we count them in our enrollment until we get a notice of their new enrollment, which can take some time depending on where they went and when that school might start.” 

The Marshall area learning center has undergone construction and resides in a shared partnership with Southwest Minnesota State University, in a science building that was not being used on SMSU’s campus off of State Street and Stadium Drive, across from the baseball and track field. 

The ALC shares the space with the new Educational Learning Center (ELC) coming from Belview as a part of the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative (SWWC), and the Adult Basic Education (ABE). The ALC and ABE share the second floor, while the ELC is located downstairs. 

The ALC ensures students graduate from high school and leave feeling prepared for college, careers and outside life in an alternative setting that some students require rather than the traditional high school, due to different needs and life circumstances. 

The ALC has a current enrollment of 48 students, which Williams said is a typical number. 

The parking lot is currently gravel, but will be tarred sometime in the near future. There also will be signs put up on the outside of the building, labeling it as a Marshall Public School entity. 

Separate from the ELC on the first level, there will be a shared space of the cafeteria, gymnasium and the nurses office. 

A room that will be shared between the ALC and ELC is Project Discovery, which teaches and exposes students to life skills. In the room was a washing machine, sewing machines, kitchen appliances and more. 

“The ELC kids use it, our kids have access to it, and other districts might rent the space with the co-op and come over and use it as well,” Williams said. “Not every school has some of those (life skill) facilities for them to use. They can use this space and bring kids over and teach them some of those skills.” 

On the ALC’s second floor, there are several classrooms, study and common areas, principal offices, conference rooms, a library and counselor officers. All rooms have new paint, new ceiling grids and new lights. 

There are currently no public address systems, but that is also on the list of features to add to the building soon. 

All entrances also are secured and visitors will need to be buzzed in, as well as cameras placed around and inside the premises. 

Brian Jones is the principal of the ALC, also principal of the high school, and Dan Hoffman serves as assistant principal.