With the completion of our audit, we are now focusing on the next steps for our revised 2025 budget and preparing for the 2026 budget.

Over recent years, we have been fortunate to maintain stable enrollment, and our projections indicate a steady to slightly decreasing student count. However, we are observing an increasing level of student needs, particularly in mental health, which remains a high priority. Additionally, there is a continued high demand for special services, including special education and language supports.

We are also seeing a growing interest among students in pursuing career and technical education (CTE) paths post-high school. To meet these needs and prepare our learners for success, we are continuing to expand and enhance our programming. The new Career and Technical Institute is a significant part of this effort, and we are also offering a wide range of CTE classes at the high school and more introductory courses at the middle school level than ever before. These opportunities will remain a priority in our budget planning.

The READ Act continues to impact our overall budget as well. While the state has provided some funding for training and staff stipends, the real costs in staff time and resources will remain a consideration in our budget process going forward. We are finalizing some curriculum pilots and are nearing decisions on new purchases to meet both our student needs and state requirements. Balancing these programmatic needs with available resources will continue to be a challenge.

Marshall Public Schools has a strong track record of fiscal responsibility, and we will continue to uphold this standard. However, as costs continue to rise and we strive to ensure our staff and students have the necessary resources, we will face some difficult decisions regarding budget support. We do have some reserves and the ability to deficit spend to some extent, but we are likely to face budget cuts in the new year. In the coming weeks and months, we plan to engage in further discussions with the Administration, Finance Committee, School Board, and Staff to identify our needs and priorities.

In other updates from the sites this month:

Nov. 11-15 Park Side students celebrated Kindness Week. Each classroom encouraged students to show their best ways to be kind, participate in fun dress up days, and earn Kindness tickets. We ended the week with a celebration that included Kindness Ticket winners who decorated cookies with high school students.

On Nov. 22, Turkey Bingo was held at Park Side School. This was a fundraising event for early childhood classrooms. Over 300 people attended the event and had a fun time playing bingo. Thank you to Turkey Valley Farms for donating turkeys and for area businesses/preschool families for donations for raffle baskets or concession stands.

As a part of the READ Act training, our first live check-in session was held on Nov. 27. All our teachers that are going through the training were able to participate in the required interactive collaboration time. Our teachers are doing a good job of utilizing the time that’s been set aside this year for them to go through this training.

Earlier this fall we had Children’s Dental Services out of Minneapolis come into the Southview building and provide dental services for many of our students. The conference room was transformed into a dental clinic for the day, and it was busy from start to end of day. This service will continue at other sites throughout the year.

Through the BARR program, we track various data points such as behavior incidents, attendance, and missing assignments. The Middle School has observed a decrease in behavior incidents and steady attendance rates. We began tracking missing assignments in December and anticipate a decrease in those as well.

The middle school continues to prioritize culture and climate for both staff and students by providing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) activities. For PBIS, we hold weekly tiger token drawings to recognize the positive Tiger Traits of respect, responsibility, and pride.

On Dec. 4, a group of CTI students traveled to Watertown, South Dakota, to participate in the prestigious “Weld-Off” competition at Lake Area Technical College. This event not only allowed our students to showcase their skills but also provided them with a chance to explore other programs on campus.

During the second half of November, we celebrated American Education Week. Our local Hy-Vee donated cookies for the MPS Staff to enjoy. We are fortunate to work in a community where businesses and families support the work that we do on behalf of our young people.

Our Junior High Knowledge Bowl teams are gearing up to compete at the regional event at SMSU this Tuesday. We are proud to have four teams representing our school!

Congratulations to the performers and directors for delivering an outstanding fall musical. This year’s production was the most attended in the past three years, with nearly 800 attendees.

Marshall hosted six teams from across the state in the hockey Thanksgiving Classic. The girls varsity won the tournament, and the boys placed third. The event also saw large crowds for all 16 games.

The Academics, Arts, and Athletics Award, commonly known as the Triple ‘A’ Award, honors high school seniors throughout the state who have a 3.0 or higher-grade point average and who participate in League-sponsored athletic and fine arts activities. Marshall High School is proud to announce that Josh Leibfried and Ali Pederson were selected. The Excel award recognizes a Junior for “Excellence in Community, Education and Leadership.” Marshall is excited to announce that Karsten Springborg was selected.

Our 2024-25 CEO Class has its business, Custom Crates, up and running. Over 75% of the products, including the crates themselves, are from local vendors or handmade by this year’s CEO Young Professionals. The customers also have the option to round up their purchase to support gift baskets to local nursing homes.

Thank you to the community for your ongoing support of our schools; we look forward to a break at the end of the calendar year and coming back to a great second half of the year in 2025.

— Jeremy Williams is the superintendent of Marshall Public Schools