Marion teams join MCAA league
It's official. Both Marion High School and Marion Middle School will be members of the Mid-Central Activity Association League beginning in the 2004-05 school year.
Marion-Florence USD 408 Board of Education officially accepted an invitation Monday night for MMS to join the middle school league. In February, the board accepted an invitation for MHS to join the high school league.
MHS Principal Ken Arnhold and MMS Principal Tod Gordon said that for the most part the league would probably use an east/west format when competing. That scheduling method would keep travel times to a minimum, the principals said.
The Division I or east MCAA lineup will include Halstead, Hesston, Hillsboro, Marion, Smoky Valley, and Wichita Collegiate. The west lineup will consist of Ellinwood, Haven, Hoisington, Lyons, Nickerson, and Sterling.
For high school football, however, the league will use a small school/large school format. Since the various league schools vary greatly in size, that system will ensure that schools are playing teams from similar size schools.
In that configuration, the small schools are Ellinwood, Halstead, Hoisington, Lyons, Marion, and Sterling. The big schools are Haven, Hillsboro, Hesston, Nickerson, Smoky Valley, and Wichita Collegiate.
Hillsboro opted to go in the large school category because it has a larger "gate" or number of people who attend its football games. The same applies to Hesston, Haven, and Smoky Valley, Arnhold explained.
"At the middle school level, that (schedule) is yet to be decided," Gordon said. "They'll probably do an east-west format for middle school. We're not too concerned about the size of the school, we're more interested in distance."
Arnhold told the board he and Gordon "had a real good feeling" about the league and it was decided that Marion would be able to compete in some events beginning next year including wrestling tournaments, forensics, music, scholars bowl, art, and debate.
Gordon said he was impressed with the fact the MCAA invited district athletic directors who met with the school's principals and were given the opportunity to express their ideas.
The board also:
— Heard from Marion Elementary School Principal Stan Ploutz that teachers had been working with crisis management and held a successful evacuation drill. He also noted the elementary school carnival was well attended and thanked the parent group and PAC for all their work and help.
— Heard from Gerald Henderson, superintendent of schools, that the Parents as Teachers group would be splitting from Dickinson County.
— Heard from Henderson the district had received a thank you note from students attending the Oasis School in Florence for the donation of 10 "ancient computers" the district was no longer using.
— Heard a report from Marion Elementary instructor Julie Trapp who said the Friday overnight event at the school, which included a "Wild Encounter" presentation with animals was a big success with 220 students participating. The first year the event was held, two years ago, 157 attended.
— Approved a request from Valley United Methodist Church to hold Vacation Bible School at Marion Elementary in June.
— Approved an out-of-district request to allow a kindergarten student to attend Marion Elementary. The family currently lives in the Peabody-Burns district.
— Approved a change in the MHS graduation requirement from speech to oral communications. That will allow students to take either speech, debate, or forensics as a graduation requirement instead of just speech. In a related action, the board approved the oral communication guide which defines outcomes for speech, forensics, and debate.
— Heard from board member Doug Sharp, the board's special education representative that the Marion County Special Education Cooperative is wrestling with many of the same issues as USD 408, primarily budget.
— Heard from board member Susan Robson, DSIT (District School Improvement Team) representative, that the team was working on computer applications, investigating technology, and was back to "building teams."
— Heard from board member Roger Hannaford III, TEEN representative, that the telephone conference meetings "works out pretty good" for the group. A recent editorial in the Marion County Record questioned how the public could attend an open meeting held by telephone.
— Heard from board member Keith Collett and board president Rex Savage who complimented the Marion High School Singers and their director an outstanding performance during the recent KMEA conference.
