For the second time in the 21st century, a new school will be enjoyed by students in the Marshall School District.

Southview Elementary on East Southview Drive will open its doors when school starts. The public will have a chance to see the building this month at an open house event.

The school will replace West Side Elementary, which served Marshall students since the 1950s. It’s the last step in a complete changeover of Marshall schools, one that began in 1968 with a high school (now the middle school) on South Saratoga Street.

At heart I was at first sorry to see West Side get closed. It was a great location for a school, right next to Legion Field park and the armory.

In my mind, however, I knew that another new building was necessary. A substantial amount of money could have been spent on West Side, probably at least several million just for a complete upgrade to the plumbing and heating system.

Marshall would still have been left with a nearly 70-year-old building, one that’s become outdated in a number of ways.

Why is a building from the 1950s outdated?

The short version of a list includes modern technology, climate control, individualized instruction, handicapped accessibility, and grade configuration.

Classrooms of the 1950s weren’t designed for computers. It was an era when huge mainframes were just starting to be developed. Now desktop and laptop availability is a modern-day standard.

Schools weren’t air conditioned back then. They were heated with massive industrial sized boilers, which don’t last forever. Depending on the location of a room, it could sometimes be cold in the winter and hot at the start and end of the school year.

Many students of the 21st century receive individualized help for learning disabilities. We didn’t have the knowledge of disabilities or the services back in the 1950s. A student who had substantial handicaps would often stay home or go to a special school. Now their needs can be incorporated into classroom design.

The same idea holds true for accessibility. Today’s schools for the most part have fewer stairs, specialized open floor plan areas such as media centers and technology labs, and improvements with design details such as the width of corridors and doors.

Lastly many schools of the 1950s, including West Side and East Side, were built as neighborhood schools for all elementary grades. Now it’s standard for buildings to have all of a district’s students for two or three grades on one campus.

The configuration change involves more of a need for bus loading zones, along with a different strategy for furniture and fixtures to make everything appropriate for a building’s age group. Southview Elementary’s grade plan is not likely to change, so its features should always be suited to the age level.

Marshall itself has changed tremendously since the 1950s, when it was decided to build two grade schools on opposite sides of town. Bruce Street was the eastern edge back then. Marshall’s golf club next to West Side was almost out in the country.

A great deal of foresight went into the 1968 investment in a large high school on an enormous area of land. There were questions about whether some of the space would ever be used.

Now the property proved large enough to accommodate Marshall’s new public library and then Southview Elementary. It’s a center of education that gets used by all age groups.

Together with the new K-12 RTR campus opening this fall in Tyler, Southview Elementary is a symbol of the future of education. Both buildings will last for many years.

Many other districts which have successfully maintained older buildings are likely to face similar decisions within the next several decades. As costs to maintain older buildings climb and as society continues to change, the option of building new is likely to become more desirable.

For now we can all be proud of the investment our communities have made in local schools. They’re at the heart of rural communities. They involve a desire to provide the best for kids and to look ahead to future generations.

— Jim Muchlinski is a long-time Independent reporter and contributor