Bond vote for facilities improvement project is less than a month away
Voters in the MFL MarMac Community School District will head to the polls on Tuesday, March 3, to decide if $7.8 million in general obligation bonds should be issued to fund an extensive facilities improvement project.
The largest addition will be a fieldhouse to the west side of the high school building in Monona, which will encase two full-sized courts with a walking track.
“The two-court complex will convert into one full-sized competition court with bleachers that will extend from both sides,” said MFL MarMac Superintendent Dale Crozier in his latest “Crozier’s Comments” column. “The complex will include an entrance with a commons, locker rooms, a training room and a hallway to the main schoolhouse.”
The project will also include an addition to the elementary school, with larger restrooms on the west side of the building and a new entrance to the east.
“The entrance will include a secretary’s office with a clear view to the sidewalk, a principal’s office and conference room,” noted Crozier. “The old principal’s office and secretary’s office will become a new academic commons area for the elementary. This area will be used for the public in the morning and after school, as well as reading groups and technology instruction during the day for regular and special education students.”
Lastly, the bond measure will include various upgrades to the middle school, in McGregor, as well as at the Monona Center. The work will be the latest in a string of projects the district has completed to update the buildings.
“The middle school gym ceiling and bleachers have recently been upgraded. We have also upgraded the classrooms. At the middle school, we added an office complex in 2005 that included a conference room and principal and secretary offices,” Crozier detailed. “The boilers, roofs, tuck-pointing, security systems, painting and other infrastructure have been updated and continue to be updated throughout the district.”
The requested $7.8 million is projected to pay for the entire facilities improvement project. When spread throughout the district over time, Crozier said this will cost approximately $88 per $100,000 of assessed property value for residential and approximately $121 per 100 acres of average cropland.
“These amounts will vary slightly in real time depending on the assessments and values a year from now,” he added. “The district also plans to reduce levies in other areas, making the total less than above. It is difficult to predict the future, as we won’t start building for over a year.”
This information was reviewed by the director of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Board.
