Linn-Mar hires OPN Architects to consult on June 2017 bond issue

MARION - The Linn-Mar school board voted this week to hire OPN Architects to provide conceptual designs, cost estimates and other services that could be used to support a bond issue to fund the district's newly adopted grade restructuring and facilities plan.

The district is projecting a June 2017 vote on the bond issue, at an amount to be determined following OPN's review of the facilities plan. The vote would require a 60 percent majority for passage.

OPN, based in Cedar Rapids, will be paid $29,500.

Centerpiece of Linn-Mar's restructuring plan, now part of the district's strategic plan, is the conversion of Excelsior Middle School into an eighth- and ninth grade center. Linn-Mar High School would serve 10th through 12th grades.

A new middle school would be built to replace Excelsior, and both the new school and Oak Ridge Middle School would serve grades five through seven.

Linn-Mar's seven elementary schools would drop a grade and serve either preschool or kindergarten through fourth grades.

Also this week, the Linn-Mar board approved a school calendar for next year that has only minor changes from the one this year.

Classes are scheduled to begin Aug. 23 and end June 1, 2018. Graduation for the Class of 2018 is slated for May 27.

Winter break is scheduled for Dec. 22, 2017, through Jan. 2, 2018, and spring break the week of March 12-16, 2018.