Marietta School Board Puts Fine Arts Center, Bond Before Voters

After nearly two hours of debate and discussion, the Marietta City Board of Education on Tuesday evening approved plans to start work on a fine arts center at Marietta High School, but only after citizens approve a new bond issue to pay for construction.

“We want the support of the community,” said Ward 2’s Tony Fasola about the new auditorium. “And I am 100 percent positive that we’ll get their backing for this.”

The fine arts center was determined a necessary addition for the school system in February after an exploratory committee looked into adding the space and found the need for more performance and storage areas for the system’s liberal arts programs such as dance, band and drama.

“We are well aware of the need,” said Randy Wiener of Ward 3, as he voted for building of the auditorium.  “This has been a need for the community for nearly 10 years.”

Alongside Wiener, the board was in complete agreement to support construction of the proposed multi-use center–which would include a 800 to 900 fixed seats, support facilities for dramatic/stage performances, appropriate lighting and acoustics, orchestra pit and lift and lobby space for concessions. The board voted unanimously for the annexed site to Marietta High.

However, the board spent nearly half the meeting debating when and how they should open a bond election to gauge public support. The discussion included talk abotu whether to put the item up for election in November 2011 or to coincide it with the presidential primaries in early 2012.

Chairwoman Irene Berens said both options had their pros and cons.

The November 2011 election would allow for more planning time and possibly better finance and bid rates to aid in constructing the project, but would cost more to add to the voting polls – nearly $50,000. The second choice in early 2012 would not be as costly – putting the bond issue on the primary ballots would be free – and would possibly bring more voter turnout. But the late vote date could run the risk of losing public interest and possibly be more costly for bonds to finance the project.

Eventually, the board voted to put the bond vote up for election to match up with the 2012 presidential primary elections, while dually starting the request for proposal process to speed up the bidding portion of the building process.

And since the board plans on waiting until late February or early March for a public decision on the financing part of the project, the members also decided to increase public awareness of the new fine arts center by charging Superintendent Emily Lembeck with educating the public on the project and finance options through forums.

Lembeck said she was pleased with the board’s “tremendous” decisions to add the new center.

 “We are moving forward with something you really want,” she said.

 Also at the Marietta Schools Business Meeting: 

• The board approved the adoption of the . Lembeck said the last few years have been challenging with the budget. But she said, too, that she was pleased to announce a “very healthy budget” as the school system would not be mandating any furlough days, cutting any programs or increasing class sizes.  The FY2012 budget is $74.5 million, which is nearly a 4 percent decrease from the past year’s budget of $77.6 million.
• The board unanimously voted to approve the purchase of 30 HP 500 tablets for $28,721.70 (with warranties) to be used by the school system. HP tablets will assist teachers in providing a one-to-one computing environment for students in areas like math.
• The board also approved the repair and replacement for several band instruments for Marietta High School. Marietta High School Principal Leigh Colburn said the number of students in the band program has jumped to 150 students this year, and the school does not have enough operational instruments to meet the growing needs. Many instrument require repairs and require six to eight weeks due in part to the ordering and repair processes. The repairs will cost about $38,500.  The last time the system has made music instrument purchases and repairs was in 2006.