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News Track: Linn-Mar breaking ground on 5-year facility plan

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4 months ago

July 14, 2024

News Track: Linn-Mar breaking ground on 5-year facility plan

Building continues July 8 on the Linn-Mar Neighborhood Faculty District’s administration constructing, which is a part of a five-year amenities plan, in Marion. The brand new constructing will enhance the area for the superintendent’s workplace, data know-how, diet companies, convention area and storage and make method for the present administration constructing to be reworked, together with including lecture rooms. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

MARION — A five-year facility plan for Linn-Mar colleges that started in 2022 included building of a brand new administration constructing, a bigger efficiency venue and an indoor athletic middle added to the highschool, amongst different initiatives.

The price estimate for all of the initiatives on the time was between $48 and $60 million, which included design charges, building prices and gear bills.

After the brand new administration constructing is completed this fall, the plan is to renovate its former area on the Studying Useful resource Heart, 2999 N. tenth St. in Marion, as extra area for Linn-Mar Excessive Faculty and for different educational packages.

The Studying Useful resource Heart was in-built 1948 when 17 one-room rural colleges joined collectively to turn out to be the Marion Rural Impartial Faculty. It was renamed Linn-Mar in 1959. The middle presently homes the executive places of work for the district in addition to the COMPASS Various Excessive Faculty and Enterprise Teachers Program, a project-based studying program.

Funding for the five-year plan will come from the next streams:

Public training and recreation levy, or PERL, a small property tax levy that can be utilized for public recreation areas equivalent to playgrounds and tennis courts.
Bodily plant and gear levy, or PPEL, which can be utilized to enhance college buildings and grounds, buy know-how and security gear and implement vitality conservation measures.
Funding from Safe an Superior Imaginative and prescient for Training, or SAVE, an present gross sales tax that can be utilized for college infrastructure.

What’s occurred since

Underneath the ability plan, an eight-court tennis advanced was accomplished earlier this yr. It’s situated adjoining to the prevailing baseball and softball amenities at Oak Ridge Center Faculty. The ultimate price for the tennis advanced was about $1.7 million.

This September, the brand new administration constructing for the district might be accomplished, growing the area out there to the superintendent’s workplace, data know-how, diet companies, convention area and storage. The price for the administration constructing, underneath building on the property of Excelsior Center Faculty, 3555 tenth St., Marion, is estimated to be $13.1 million.

Construction continues July 8 on the Linn-Mar Community School District administration building, which is part of a five-year facilities plan, in Marion. Other parts of the plan include a larger performance venue and an indoor athletic center for the high school. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette) — Building continues July 8 on the Linn-Mar Neighborhood Faculty District administration constructing, which is a part of a five-year amenities plan, in Marion. Different components of the plan embody a bigger efficiency venue and an indoor athletic middle for the highschool. (Geoff Stellfox/The Gazette)

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The Studying Useful resource Heart additionally will endure some reworking as former workplace area turns into lecture rooms. The middle already homes the district’s project-based studying program referred to as Enterprise Teachers and different packages referred to as COMPASS and ATLAS, which is a program via 4 Oaks for at-risk youth.

Some conventional highschool lessons additionally might be housed on the Studying Useful resource Heart, which is situated throughout the parking zone from Linn-Mar Excessive Faculty.

Mark Hutcheson, director of Excessive Faculty Instructing and Studying and director of Enterprise Teachers, stated as much as 400 college students might be utilizing the Studying Useful resource Heart this fall.

“Our college students are having nice experiences and much more they’re partaking in studying. We wish them to go away with excellent data and abilities they will take wherever they go,” Hutcheson stated.

Elyssa McDowell, Enterprise Teachers strategic partnerships coordinator, stated this system wants the additional area. About 300 college students are registered for this system this fall — important progress since its launch within the 2021-22 college yr with 90 college students.

“We’re wanting ahead to having extra room to unfold out,” McDowell stated. “With project-based studying, quite a bit is occurring. It’s much less college students dealing with the trainer throughout a lecture and lots of teams doing analysis collectively, prototyping, and assembly with neighborhood companions.”

The Studying Useful resource Heart’s reworking is estimated to price is about $1.34 million and consists of:

Enhancements to the constructing’s fireplace suppression system
Eradicating partitions to remodel workplace area into lecture rooms
Upgraded electrical work to higher help the know-how wants of a contemporary classroom
And elevated entry to water sources in lecture rooms that train topics like biomedical science.

Lastly, building of the brand new efficiency venue started this spring close to Linn-Mar Excessive Faculty’s present auditorium. The brand new area might be higher suited to accommodate each college and neighborhood use. It’s anticipated to be accomplished in fall 2025 and price about $28.4 million.

The present area has restricted the district’s potential to host extra occasions for college kids in intermediate and center colleges, college officers say. The brand new area will develop seating capability from 833 to as much as 1,200.

Within the spring, the district had greater than 60 occasions scheduled within the auditorium and Little Theatre, two of its present auditorium areas. Eighty % of these occasions presently scheduled are related to the highschool, and solely 20 % are actions for intermediate and center college college students.

“Our district’s imaginative and prescient was to make sure our bodily areas proceed to reinforce our college students’ educational and extracurricular experiences at Linn-Mar, and we look ahead to inviting our public into these new areas as they’re accomplished,” stated Linn-Mar Chief Monetary/Working Officer Jon Galbraith.

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