Laurens-Marathon Community School District

Laurens-Marathon Community School District is a school district headquartered in Laurens, Iowa,[1] and also serving Marathon. The district occupies sections of Buena Vista, Clay, Palo Alto, and Pocahontas counties.[2]

As of January 2011 the certified enrollment is 353 students with a certified staff of 34 and a support staff of 29.[3]

History

It formed on July 1, 1976 by the merger of the Laurens Community School District and the Marathon Community School District.[4]

On July 1, 2010, the South Clay Community School District was dissolved, and Laurens-Marathon received portions of the district.[4]

In 2014 the South Central Calhoun Community School District, a district not contiguous with Laurens-Marathon,[5] entered a superintendent-sharing agreement. The shared superintendent was Jeff Kruse.[6]

The district began partial-day sharing, in which students from one district went to another district for some classes, with the Pocahontas Community School District around 2015.[7]

Kruse was scheduled to leave at the end of the 2016–2017 school year.[8] Scott Williamson became the new superintendent in July 2017.[9] That year the L-M and Pocahontas districts began whole grade-sharing, in which one district sent its children to another district for certain grade levels.[7] L-M had multiple classes it was required to have in order to maintain high school grades, but insufficient numbers of students were enrolled in them. As a result, Laurens-Marathon sent its high school students to Pocahontas high school. Around that time period Laurens-Marathon elementary school students had, as part of a preliminary indication, increased test scores.[10]

Laurens-Marathon is notable for its severe mismanagement of funds, particularly pertaining to the Fine Arts. Additionally, Laurens-Marathon middle school students were once given textbooks so old that they had to write in the 27th Amendment to the Constitution.

School

The current 84-foot (26 m) by 50-foot (15 m) gymnasium opened in September 1998. The previous 76-foot (23 m) by 48-foot (15 m) gymnasium, built in the early 1940s, was called "The Barn".[11]

References
  1. Home. Laurens-Marathon Community School District. Retrieved on June 20, 2018. "Laurens-Marathon CSD, 300 W Garfield St, Laurens, IA 50554"
  2. "Laurens-Marathon." Iowa Department of Education. Retrieved on July 20, 2018.
  3. "Laurens Marathon". Laurens Marathon High school. Retrieved January 27, 2011.
  4. "REORGANIZATION & DISSOLUTION ACTIONS SINCE 1965-66." Iowa Department of Education. Retrieved on July 20, 2018.
  5. "East Sac, South Central will not share superintendent". Daily Times Herald. 2014-05-14. Retrieved 2018-07-18.
  6. Schafer, Mark (2014-08-26). "Laurens-Marathon to share superintendent with South Central Calhoun". Storm Lake Pilot Tribune. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
  7. Kaspari, Peter (2017-02-19). "Laurens-Marathon: Sharing". The Messenger. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
  8. "South Central Calhoun: Facility improvements". The Messenger. 2017-02-19. Retrieved 2018-07-19.
  9. Kaspari, Peter (2017-07-28). "Williamson is new shared superintendent at L-M". The Messenger. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
  10. "Laurens-Marathon: Whole-grade sharing, The agreement is working". The Messenger. 2018-01-28. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
  11. ""The Barn"." Laurens-Marathon Community School District. November 4, 1999. Retrieved on July 21, 2018.


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