UNcommon Sense: Summer School

The fiscal year for public schools runs from July 1 to June 30, each year. This being the case, June and July are actually very busy months at the district office. The focus for June

is mainly reconciling and balancing all of the current fiscal year’s accounts.

Ultimately, all district accounts and expenditures will be reviewed by a private auditor, as well as the State Department of Education, to ensure the district is compliant with all state and federal laws. This makes our work in June very important and helps ensure your tax dollars are properly being accounted for each year.

Summer is also a time to prepare for the upcoming year. During the summer, employees will be completing professional development trainings and organizing/planning for future events. This summer also includes a lot of work taking place as part of our bond project. It will be especially important to maximize the work while students are not on campus and the weather is more cooperative.

All three Phase 1 builds (high school saferoom, middle school saferoom, and wrestling facility) are essentially constructed. While there are still finishes remaining on the exteriors of each, in the next month or so, the focus will primarily be on the interior finish work. These three builds are currently scheduled for completion by mid-fall 2023.

As these builds wrap up, Phase 2 will be ramping up. Phase 2 consists of the new high school classrooms (to be built west of the current science building) and the Performing Arts Center (to be built east of the new high school saferoom). The ground prep work for the each has already begun. Once the natural gas company relocates the gas line, this work will become even more active.

Lastly, I wanted to share a concern. The district has multiple dumpsters at multiple sites. The construction crew also has a few roll off dumpsters on the work sites. Of late, we have been experiencing a higher number of illegal dumping for each. Recently, someone unloaded numerous wood fence panels in one of the district dumpsters. Not only did this person over-fill the dumpsters, they left more fencing on the ground in and around the dumpsters.

The result was the trash service company could not access the dumpsters and the mess was left to our maintenance staff to clean up. While this is just one example of illegal dumping, this kind of thing is occurring not only on our campuses but at our baseball and softball fields too.

Unfortunately, it has often kept the school from being able to use our dumpsters. Moving forward, I would respectfully ask people to refrain from using the district dumpsters. Instead, please use of the city dumpsite or other waste management options for personal trash and debris. Doing so will help make sure the district dumpsters are available for district purposes. Everyone cooperation with this matter is greatly appreciated.

Corey Holland is Superintendent of Marlow Public School District