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Linn-Mar to move forward with design plans for $53.4 million indoor activities center
No additional taxes or funding measures required to fund construction of the center that will include a new wrestling room, weight room and gym
Apr. 16, 2025 5:30 am, Updated: Apr. 16, 2025 7:35 am
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MARION — The Linn-Mar Community School District is beginning its next steps of designing and securing financing for a new indoor activities center at the high school estimated to cost $53.4 million.
The Linn-Mar school board Monday unanimously approved moving forward with the project, which will provide students a new wrestling room, weight room and gym, as well as renovations to the locker room.
The indoor activities center would be attached to Linn-Mar High School south of the main gym. It is being funded with Secure an Advanced Vision for Education and Physical Plant and Equipment Levy funds. No additional taxes or funding measures are required.
SAVE is known as Iowa’s one cent sales tax that helps school districts pay for projects like building repairs and technology upgrades. PPEL is a property tax levied and collected by the school district. Voters in the Linn-Mar Community School District approved renewing PPEL last year by about 74 percent.
Both funds can be used for the improvement of grounds, purchase, construction and remodeling of buildings and major equipment purchases.
Linn-Mar school board Vice President Barry Buchholz said the center is a “monumental thing for our district.”
School board member Brittania Morey said the district has the funds to construct the activities center. There is room to grow at the elementary, intermediate and middle school level with several new schools built in recent years and renovations and improvements completed in older buildings, she said.
“This is not in lieu of taking care of our current facilities,” Morey said.
Board member Midhat Mansoor said the “price tag” for the activities center “was a shock.” But the district is planning for “the next 30 years,” Mansoor said. “We have to think forward.”
What will be included in the new activities center?
The new facility will provide a larger weight room for students and expand wrestling space to meet the needs of both boys and newly-sanctioned girls wrestling teams. It also will serve as a storm shelter to provide safety for students, staff and visitors.
Additional hardwood courts will alleviate scheduling conflicts for athletics and PE classes. The project also will renovate locker rooms that have received little updates in 30 years.
Another feature of the indoor activity center will be an indoor track, which will allow the district to host competitive indoor track meets and eliminate the need for runners to train in school hallways.
The district’s auxiliary gym will be converted into a multipurpose space with batting cages and turf to support speed and agility training, football, soccer, shot put and golf.
The project includes tearing down old tennis courts south of the high school to replace the parking spaces impacted by adding a new facility.
Linn-Mar has about 1,400 students participating in seasonal sports throughout the year. High school students often are practicing and playing in other district locations because of the volume of school events and activities at the high school.
Because of current space limitations, first through sixth grade students practice basketball during the season until 9:30 p.m. many weekday evenings, school officials said. High school courts also are used for PE, intramural activities, band practices and other activities.
Public support for the activities center
Seven people — many of them teachers and current and former district employees — spoke in support of building an indoor activities center Monday during public comment.
Erin Watts, who taught in the district for 19 years, said she saw how athletics “motivated students to succeed, not just academically, but emotionally and socially.”
Watts said sports gave students “belonging, resilience and purpose.” Today, Watts’ two daughters — a fifth-grader and freshman — “are more confident, compassionate people” because of their participation in athletics, she said.
But Watts said her youngest daughter in fifth grade didn’t get home from basketball practice most nights until after 9 p.m. this year. “There simply wasn’t enough gym space for them to hold practice,” she said.
Izzie Watts, 15, Erin Watts’ daughter, wrestles for Linn-Mar High School.
“The wrestling room and weight room are extremely crowded,” Izzie said during public comment Monday. “During the season we can only weight train one day a week because of all the sports using the room.”
Project is part of a five-year facility plan
The high school indoor activities center is one of the last projects of a five-year facility plan created in 2022. Projects completed or currently under construction under this plan include:
- A new Educational Leadership Center that opened this spring at 3556 Winslow Rd., Marion. The public is welcome to visit Wednesday, April 23 with a ribbon-cutting and brief remarks at 4:30. The space will be open for self-guided tours until 6 p.m.
- An eight-court tennis complex, located adjacent to the baseball/softball facilities at Oak Ridge Middle School, was completed last year.
- Expanding the north parking lot at the high school, which was completed in 2023, added nearly 200 parking spots.
- Renovations were completed in 2024 at the former Learning Resource Center, 2999 10th St., Marion. The building, now named the Academic Excellence Center, provides additional space for Linn-Mar High School classrooms and houses the district’s project based learning program called Venture Academics and COMPASS Alternative Center for 11th-12th graders.
- A performance venue is under construction on the west side of the high school and is planned to be completed this fall. It will expand the high school’s capacity from about 811 to 1,200 students in its auditorium.
Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com
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