Linn-Mar strategic planning to be open to all, superintendent says

MARION - Linn-Mar's upcoming strategic planning process will be open to all members of the Linn-Mar community, Superintendent Quintin Shepherd stressed in his inaugural State of the District address Monday at Linn-Mar High School.

'Every single person who wants to be heard will receive that chance,” Shepherd said, adding that input would be sent back out to the community to be eventually pared down into decisions that will determine the district's future.

'We have to know where we are going,” he said, 'then decide how to get there.”

Shepherd, in an address entitled 'Pathways to Success,” noted that, since coming to Linn-Mar, he had been hearing 'over and over again” that there are multiple pathways to success and the district must accommodate all of them for its students from preschool to high school.

He said he had also been hearing that technology should be viewed as a learning tool and that planning for new facilities should merge conversations between 'function and experience.”

Shepherd's address preceded a school board meeting at which the board decided to double the size of its fleet of four propane-powered school buses and set public hearings on four key construction projects.

Noting that the propane-powered buses are both reliable and currently run on cheaper fuel (when compared to diesel), the board accepted a transportation department recommendation to purchase three 77-passenger buses and one 59-passenger bus with a lift for a total of $396,703.

The public hearings, all to approve designs and specifications on Feb. 8, are for entrance renovation at Excelsior Middle School, kitchen renovation at Linn-Mar High School, cafeteria expansion at Oak Ridge Middle School and a classroom addition at Westfield Elementary School.