Marietta City Schools Prepare For A New Kind Of Year

MARIETTA, OH — Yesterday, the Marietta City School District's Board of Education gathered for their monthly meeting. The school board is getting ready to start a school year like never before. In about a month, Marietta High School will open to students grades 7-12. Marietta Middle School will now be Marietta Elementary School, and open to students grades 3-6. And Phillips and Washington Schools will split grades K-2.

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Superintendent Will Hampton says the wheels are in motion to make all this happen as smoothly as possible.

"We've got construction projects happening. The high school is pretty much in place, the teachers are in place. We're hiring, that's part of the problem."

He said they've had unexpected openings, but are working on that.

"I'm not worried about starting school on time. There might be things that are yet to be done, but we'll be ready for kids when school starts."

The school board has been looking at some delays when it comes to getting equipment in.

"Playground equipment, kitchen equipment, things like that we're going to have to work around."

Hampton says they're looking at supply chain issues like everyone else.

"You can get some things, but not everything. But we'll be alright."

Also, the school board announced that they've received a $181,000 grant to have a licensed professional therapist for mental health and substance abuse disorder.

"We contract through L&P Services for mental health support. We've worked with them for the past several years, all of that's kind of grown, but they've been very helpful and well received by the community."

Also, the Marietta City School District is going to be launching a new website on August 1.

"I'm very excited and I think it'll be well received. Because the one we have is dated, it's kind of clunky, this will be a big upgrade. It's going to grow, the initial opening won't be the full package, we won't have everything in place."

He says they're still building their staff lists right now because teachers are moving buildings. However, once they get the site where they want it they expect to launch a Marietta City Schools app. Hampton says this will be good for everyone because if there's a snow day he can let all the parents and teachers know with the push of a button.

There was only one person who elected to make a public comment this month, as opposed to the six from last month. It was Lynn Stoll and she was speaking against teaching Critical Race Theory. Here are some excerpts from her speech.

"While school districts across the country are teaching questionable curriculums in the classroom, I propose we don’t and avoid the long-term controversies that will follow.

"You will have parents removing their students from the schools. While some will do a good job homeschooling their children, some will not have the ability to teach the basic skills students need to become employable citizens. This will create a depleted workforce that will cause more unemployment and more social assistance paid into by just the few who have personal work ethic characteristics.

"While you said at the last board meeting in June, you as a board have no intentions to have Critical Race Theory, 1619 Project, Planned Parenthood sex education or boys in girls’ sports, I want to have total confirmation, not a guess. Maybe you all do not genuinely understand how these issues can be infiltrated in our community’s schools. Do you as a school board track where governmental funding comes from when the school district receives it?"

To be clear, Superintendent Will Hampton has repeatedly said that they do not teach CRT and have no plans to do so. He recently made the comment that it is not a problem in our school district, but remains open to hearing from concerned citizens on this issue.

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