As work on large construction projects like the Career and Technical Education (CTE) wing at Marshalltown High School (MHS) and the tornado safe room at the football field are underway, crews are also working on smaller projects at facilities across the Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD).
At the regular school board meeting on Monday evening, Director of Buildings and Grounds Todd Goulding and Safety and Security Coordinator Eric Weeden provided board members with updates on the progress.
At MHS, Goulding said the southeast parking lot asphalt work has been finished, and they also added a water heater.
“We actually have four of these larger water heaters that serve all of MHS,” he said. “Two were replaced last year, one this summer and next summer we will look to replace the last one. All of the units that were there, you can no longer get parts for them. We definitely wanted to make sure we have hot water in that building.”
At Lenihan Intermediate, the work to replace the original entry door is finished. Weeden said the original door was shot. The new door was installed with the safety of students and staff in mind.
“It doesn’t get used a lot,” he said. “We cleaned it up and made it safer.”
Some of the work at other district buildings includes:
• Marshalltown Performing Arts Center (high school auditorium), replacement of the carpet and wall coverings at $53,000, which was completed a couple weeks ago;
• Miller Middle School, repairs to the timeout room are underway and will cost $10,000;
• Marshalltown Learning Academy, an additional office space was created at a cost of $15,000. The office was requested by Principal Eric Goslinga for a counselor. Goulding said the space will provide better privacy;
• Rogers Elementary, replacement of the upper roof is underway by Pella Roofing and will cost $70,000. Goulding said the work will be completed by the start of school on Sept. 3;
• Transportation, concrete for drainage repair will be installed for $15,000. Goulding told the board members the repair will help flow gravel away from the building and;
• Woodbury Elementary, asphalt was replaced at the playground at a cost of $54,000.
Goulding said the district is primarily using $791,000 in Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) funds for most of the projects. The Woodbury playground was paid for from the PERL fund.
Board member Zach Wahl asked if a sidewalk to the bleachers at the MHS softball field had been considered as a way to help prevent sporting event attendees from tripping.
“I’ve thought about that, and I would honestly like to see pavement,” Goulding told him. “I think a sidewalk, something wide enough, would help quite a bit.”
Superintendent Theron Schutte asked if the roof work at Fisher had been completed. Goulding said it has not yet, but the contractor is working with suppliers to get proper materials.
After Goulding spoke about the smaller construction projects, Weeden addressed the security updates. In 2022, he said the governor’s office created the School Safety Initiative, in which schools would have to go through a safety assessment. If that first step was completed, the district could apply for a $50,000 grant for each school building to implement security enhancements. Marshalltown received $500,000, Weeden added.
“To date, we have done numerous things,” he said. “Some things you can see and some things you can’t. For instance, the numbering on the doors is one of those things. That was actually done prior to the grant. Classroom door locks are simply for when you go into a lockdown situation, the classroom door closes, you push the button and the door locks.”
Weeden said they are in the process of adding access control, or card readers to some of the schools. That will reduce the number of physical keys to doors.
“It also allows us to know who is in our school,” he said.
Digital radios have also been added to the schools. Weeden said they are better than the analog devices used previously. In a large school, he said analog radios might not be able to carry communication to another one.
Exterior building lighting is important for school security. Weeden said it helps when the district has cameras in use to identify issues. Additional security cameras have been installed and a Harris radio is now in each school building.
“In a situation, we can immediately get on that radio and have access to the 911 Communication Center,” he said. “If there was a situation somewhere in which you have multiple people trying to call 911, it would jam that up. It gives us a better opportunity to allow us to speak to a 911 communication operator.”
The security work needs to be completed by Dec. 31, and Weeden said they are ahead of schedule, with an estimated finish time of September. He said the district has spent 80 percent of the grant money on the updates so far.