While much of the work taking place has been happening “behind the scenes,” there has been a great deal of work happening with and on the school districts’ facilities, buildings and grounds, and safety and security.

Work on improving safety and security at West Side Elementary and the Marshall Middle School was completed earlier this year. Anyone who has visited either of these schools likely noticed a buzzin/ camera system, where a visitor pushes a button and talks into a camera to get into the office while they are in an entry or foyer area. Once the visitor is buzzed into the office, we are utilizing a new visitor management system, called Raptor, where a government-issued identification card can be used to “log into” our visitor management system – once a visitor has logged in (which can also be done manually, if necessary), checking in the next time goes quickly. The safety and security projects at West Side and the Middle School were funded by state grants, totaling nearly $700,000. In addition to safety and security work that’s been completed at these sites, we continue to internally evaluate our procedures and processes to ensure that we are working from the inside-out to keep students, staff, and visitors safe in our schools.

On Jan. 28, bids will be opened and reviewed for an Early Childhood program and space expansion and safety and security projects at Park Side Elementary School. Work on these projects will start in March of this year, be mostly completed by August of this summer, and be completely finished in October 2020. This work will involve renovating several areas of Park Side, adding additional space for EC classrooms and programming, and doing similar safety and security work as what has already been completed at West Side and the Middle School. We are looking forward to having all of our EC programming at one location/building, expanding our space at Park Side, and implementing new and improved safety and security features.

Bids for the new elementary school (located on the Middle School campus along Southview Drive) will be opened and analyzed on Feb. 6. This new elementary school is proposed to be approximately 83,000 square feet and will serve our 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-grade students. The building will easily accommodate 600 students and is designed with flexibility for additional classrooms/sections if enrollment necessitates that change. The school will primarily be a two-story building and will feature an appropriate amount of flexible space for students and classes and maximizing natural light. It will also include adequate cafeteria, kitchen, physical education, music, intervention/support, and gymnasium spaces, along with a media center that will be an exciting attraction for students. Work on the new elementary school will begin in March of this year and conclude in July or August of 2021.

At their meeting on Jan. 6, the Marshall School Board authorized solicitation of requests for proposal for the purchase and acquisition of the West Side Elementary School and adjacent school property. It is the district’s desire that any individual or company/business who has an interest in purchasing and acquiring the building and land will submit a proposal detailing their plans for future use of the building, land, and site. These RFP’s are due on Feb. 24, at which time they will be evaluated.

Thank you for taking time to read this and for the support shown for the Marshall Public School District. I can be reached at scott.monson@marshall.k12.mn.us or at 507-537-6924. Go Tigers!