Marion Independent School District could have new elementary school for 2017-18 school year

MARION - If all goes well, the Marion Independent School District could have a new Longfellow Elementary School to open the 2017-18 school year.

OPN Architects, which is coordinating the project, is attempting to get bidding materials out by the end of this month and would like to bring a recommendation to the Marion school board at its meeting on April 25.

If a bid is accepted, construction could begin almost immediately with projected occupancy in August 2017.

OPN gave the public a peek at what the new preschool to second grade school, which is slated to replace Emerson Elementary School, might look like at a meeting Monday.

The new school will be built on a site between Eighth and 10th avenues and 29th and 31st streets in Marion. The site formerly was home to the Kirkwood Learning Center and, before that, the district's former old Longfellow School.

The proposed school will face south with a parking lot and main entrance accessible from 10th Avenue.

It will have a west-oriented gymnasium/cafeteria, center-oriented office and art and music rooms, and east-oriented academic and media center wing.

The base plan includes two classrooms each for second grade, first grade, special education and preschool, and three kindergarten classrooms.

Bid specifications most likely will include alternates for two additional classrooms to the north and three additional classrooms to the south.

Each individual classroom will have its own color to aid students in finding the room.