The Marshalltown Community School District’s indoor and outdoor physical education, wellness, recreation and athletic facilities have great tradition and have served the community and school district well since their origination in the 1960’s, but they had been showing their age and are in need of significant updates and repair. Marshalltown historically set the standard for which others attempted to emulate when it came to such facilities and currently we find ourselves in a position of attempting to emulate them, thus the phrase “catching up with the Joneses.”

Over the past decade, the community has stepped up in a big way to support the District’s successful effort to renovate the iconic Marshalltown High School Roundhouse, auxiliary gymnasium and the Allie Morrison Wrestling Training Room. Once again, this facility has become a desirable location to offer youth tournaments; as well as, high school interscholastic competitions.

The City of Marshalltown and the Martha Ellen Tye Foundation collaborated with the school district to reconstruct one of the finest high school court complexes in the state, consisting of twelve tennis and three pickleball courts, which has garnered National Facility of the Year recognition from the United States Tennis Association (USTA). The complex has hosted youth and adult USTA sanctioned tournaments and this spring will be host to the IHSAA/IGHSAU State Class 2A Co-Ed Tennis Tournament.

The Marshalltown High School competition swimming pool received significant HVAC and lighting improvements; as well as, a new digital scoreboard as part of the overall air conditioning and lighting project performed at the school last year. Much of this project was funded as a result of the Federal Pandemic funding given to schools for the purpose of improving air quality and flow. Coupled with the award winning Linda Bloom Natatorium at the Marshalltown YMCA, which currently hosts the IGHSAU State Swimming Championships, the overall indoor swimming facilities in Marshalltown are second to none.

The District plans to embark on a significant stadium complex renovation at Marshalltown High School this spring and summer. The project includes a new synthetic turf field that will meet IAHSAA / IGHSAU and intercollegiate standards for soccer as our current field does not allow for state tournament level competition to be held there. There will be a new track, home grandstand, press box, storage, lights and a state-of-the-art digital scoreboard. The District continues to work with Iowa Homeland Security and FEMA in an effort to successfully acquire a Tornado-Safe Room grant that would allow for the creation of a team room building that has public restrooms, concession stand and locker room space for home and visiting teams. Though a significant upgrade from our current facility, it will simply provide our student-athletes, marching band and spectators with a similar venue to most every other 4A/5A school in the state of Iowa.

Thanks to the Physical Education and Recreation Levy (PERL) our District is one of twenty-nine, in the state of Iowa, who have this locally approved funding stream dedicated to the maintenance and enhancement of our elementary school playgrounds which are utilized 24/7 and 365 days of the year by the citizens of Marshalltown. The City of Marshalltown benefits from PERL funding to support their Parks and Recreation educational programming for Marshalltown youth. Please encourage Senator Edler and Representative Cahill to VOTE NO and reject legislative efforts to eliminate this levy under the guise of reducing taxes.

During the 1960’s & 1970s our community had placed a premium on making sure that our physical education and recreation facilities were outstanding and the envy of others. We find ourselves now in a position of catching up to others knowing that Marshalltown student-athletes deserve the same opportunities and experiences as other students receive in their respective school districts and communities. Slowly but surely we’re getting there as the Marshalltown Community School District does their part in contributing to Marshalltown: More Than Ever!

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Dr. Theron J. Schutte is the superintendent of the

Marshalltown Community School District.