Rising student enrollment in the Marshall Public School District is the big elephant in the room for Marshall voters.

Tuesday night the theme of rising student enrollment took center stage during the district board meeting and a familiar topic popped up as the new school year starts this week. For the ninth straight year, school officials are reporting rising numbers in the classrooms; and this year, the numbers are higher than expected.

According Superintendent Scott Monson, the 2017-18 school year ended with 2,470 students. He said the district was anticipating 2,494 students, but first-day enrollment stands at 2,549 at this time. That is 79 more students from last year.

Of course, the question of space was immediately brought up by a board member. Will the new numbers be problematic?

“There are times where it would be nice to have another section, but the space just doesn’t exist. That’s the challenge we have,” Monson said.

In April 2017, nearly 4,000 voters went to the polls and resoundingly said no to a $39.415 million district building bond referendum. It was defeated 2,419-1,495.

There was a lot of criticism directed toward how the referendum was set up. While there appeared to be some support for a new elementary school, the referendum included upgrades to the middle school and high school. A second question, if the first question passed, called for $1 million to renovate the current unused swimming pool area for the middle school to expand.

If the current trend of rising enrollment continues, voters and the school district will eventually need to address the uncomfortable referendum subject again. The big elephant just doesn’t want to leave the room inside the Marshall Public School District.