First public meeting on East Marshall bond issue held Wednesday | News, Sports, Jobs

Perhaps the most notable and controversial aspect of the proposal is that it would reduce the district’s total number of operating buildings from three to two. Currently, elementary students go to Laurel, middle schoolers to Gilman and high schoolers to Le Grand. Because the Gilman facility, which dates back 100 years, is the oldest of the three, it would be closed, with additions built to accommodate moving sixth grade students to the elementary in Laurel and the seventh and eighth grade students to the high school in Le Grand.

Drury, an East Marshall alum who formerly worked for the district and was well aware of the emotions surrounding the upcoming vote, asked the audience of approximately 70 people to listen with an open mind, citing his own experience as a student when the former Le Grand-Dunbar-Ferguson (LDF) and Southeast Marshall County (SEMCO) districts joined to become East Marshall over three decades ago.

“These are difficult conversations for any school district. They’re difficult conversations for any community. I’ve experienced it as a student when the district originally consolidated. It was my fourth grade year. I experienced not being able to go to Dunbar and that building closing,” he said. “I’ve experienced it as an employee being at the elementary the year that Ferguson closed down and we moved everybody to Laurel, and now I’m experiencing it as a parent…I know it’s difficult conversations. I know that there are strong feelings and thoughts and assumptions and all those things. I get it, but I just ask that you listen to facts, listen to the details, listen to the process that we’ve gone through and write down questions that you have because these conversations and this decision is not being taken lightly.”

As he went on to explain, predictions about continued declining enrollment that were brought up 10 to 15 years back have become reality, with the total number of students served in all grades at about 611 to begin the 2024-2025 school year (during the 2008-2009 school year, that number was nearly 900) and about 30 percent of those students open enrolling into the district, primarily from Marshalltown. Drury shared some background on the process that led up to the bond issue proposal that garnered the necessary number of signatures to be placed on the ballot.

Gillaspie broke down the tax impact of the bond for commercial, residential and agricultural property owners during the public meeting, which is the first of four scheduled ahead of the Nov. 5 vote.

Drury commented that it wouldn’t do residents any good to squabble over the past, and the important thing now was to move forward and find a solution that is best for the district’s students and staff as well as its general long-term viability as enrollment continues to decline.

“No matter where you’re standing on this issue, this is the first of four meetings. The intent is to share information, and where I stand is, at the end of the day, whether we agree on what the next step is or not, the reality is we’re all Mustangs,” he said. “You’re in this district, whether you have kids in the district or not or you’re an alumni of the district or not, we’re all Mustangs. So we have to have these difficult conversations because I think… the reason that you’re here is because you care about East Marshall.”

Riley gave some background on how he got involved in the project and shared that he had previously recommended closing all three buildings and constructing one campus for all grade levels. He added, however, that as an outsider, he didn’t have emotional attachment to any of the buildings — unlike most of the people in attendance — and could thus propose more “radical” ideas.

While that proposal failed to gain traction, the conversations led to a focus on the space available for expansions in Laurel and Le Grand, while Gilman did not have the same space free without taking the baseball field out of commission.

“Don’t do a drive by and say ‘Oh, I remember all the days I spent there’ or ‘Oh, I had such wonderful times there.’ You need to understand the condition of the building, how bad it is, the maintenance aspect of it, the issues that they have for teaching,” Riley said. “That’s where I can remove the emotion of the physical piece of it and really focus on what’s the best for students and staff.”

Gillaspie spoke next and focused on the financial aspects of the bond — namely, the tax impact it would have on owners of residential properties, commercial properties and agricultural land. While the general increase would be $2.70 per $1,000 of valuation if the bond passes with a 60 percent supermajority, that would not necessarily look the same across the board because of the rollbacks and credits available as well as the fact that agricultural land is usually assessed far below its market value.

Due to the rollback, for example, residential properties are currently only taxed at about 46.3 percent of their assessed value (and a homestead tax credit can be claimed), while commercial property owners would see the biggest hike. The simplest way to figure out the annual impact, Gillaspie explained, was to take the total taxable value of all property owned, divide it by 1,000 and multiply it by 2.7.

From there, it was time to open the floor up for the question and answer portion of the night, which ran over an hour and covered a number of topics related to several aspects of the bond, including taxation and how the architects are paid for their work (most of the money comes after the bond is passed). Riley went into more detail about some of the features of the proposed project, which would include building three new classrooms and a gymnasium at the elementary to allow for a separate cafeteria. At the high school, it would include construction of several new classrooms with the intention of keeping middle school students separated from high schoolers. He also reminded the audience that facilities should be considered part of every district’s strategy for attracting high-quality employees.

“It is a competition and you have to think about it that way because otherwise you will lose staff, you will lose curriculum and you will lose the capacity to teach,” Riley said.

As expected, many of the inquiries related to the fate of the Gilman building and how its closure would impact the community of about 530 residents, with one attendee even worrying that losing a school could invite sex offenders to take up residence there. Riley did not feel the building was “critical” to the town or a heartbeat of the community.

Some commenters wondered where they could find more information on the bond, and Ryan pointed them to eastmarshallbond.org, which lays out the details on the project, the tax impact and how to vote. He also offered tours ot the facilities if people contacted him to set them up between now and November.

One question about busing for students if the district moves to two campuses prompted the superintendent to note that East Marshall currently has the 17th highest transportation costs out of about 300 districts in the state. There were also several questions about what would become of the baseball field and the gymnasium in Gilman, especially as it relates to middle school athletics. District leaders plan to keep the field operational as it is for the foreseeable future, while there is no firm decision on the gym.

“In regards to a decision (on) exactly what’s gonna happen with the old building, that hasn’t been decided. The school board has made a conscious statement of saying ‘We are going to wait until the bond issue election passes and the construction is completed.’ And then they’re going to address that facility at that time and make those decisions,” Ryan said.

School board member Elizabeth Crandon explained that while they would love to build another new gym specifically for junior high athletes, they typically cost between $3 and $4 million and the district simply doesn’t have the money.

An attendee wanted to know how students would be educated with minimal interruption during the construction process, and another became emotional as she wondered why the Gilman building had been “passed over” in favor of the other two. Ryan reported that East Marshall currently has the second lowest tax levy rate ($10.88) among schools in the NICL West, which has declined substantially as a result of previous bonds being paid off early, and the $2.70 increase would still keep it squarely in the middle.

Near the conclusion of the meeting, Riley fielded a question on what the ‘Plan B’ would be if the bond fails in November.

“The Plan B is probably that the buildings continue to age and continue to fall apart and get worse every single day and every single year,” Riley said. “Kicking it down the road is not a good answer, and if you decided to use a bond and just repair the facilities, it isn’t going to go very far because there’s a lot to do in Gilman. There’s things to do here… If it doesn’t pass, it doesn’t help the district long-term.”

Future meetings are planned for Sept. 18, Sept. 21 and Oct. 2 with the times and locations to be determined.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.