The district is in the process of finalizing plans to build a freshman center on campus that is set to open in August 2014. This campus will replace the parking lot found between the field house and gym as well as the softball field and tennis courts. These sport complexes will be rebuilt beside the baseball field on Dixon Lane.

Students, teachers, parents and community members put in their input on the center during several of the design meetings. Heads of student counsel, seniors Dalton Dallas and Ryan Lambert, attended the meetings along with multiple department heads.

According to Principal Gary Shafferman, by having the ninth grade center on the same campus as the main campus, the freshmen will be able adjust to the high school environment.

“What the freshman campus offers is a little bit of a transition period for freshmen,” Shafferman said. “It allows them to have a little bit more specialized attention.”

Though the freshman center was originally planned to be built off campus, the district decided that a center built on campus would save transportation time and money. Even though all advanced classes will be offered at the center, certain classes will only be offered on the main campus.

Students will need to move between the two campuses during passing periods, so the new campus will connect to the three-year campus through a hallway near the Marauder gym. The softball and tennis players will travel to the fields on Dixon Lane for their practices.

Sophomore Makensie Holland heard about the new freshman center from the athletic trainers and has some concerns about the new center.

“All of the construction is going to make the traffic and parking really bad, and it is going to make it hard for the people in tennis,” Holland said.

The entrance of the center is planned to feature columns like those found in the front of the three-year campus. In the middle of the center, a 40-foot wide hallway will stretch from the entrance to the end of the school.

Inside this hallway will possibly be “learning hubs” and charging stations where students can plug in their electronics and surf the web. Another feature includes a courtyard, which will be an outdoor area found within the school. Students will be able to eat and study there surrounded by grass and trees.

“They’re really going to have to work at keeping the upperclassmen out because it’s going to be so attractive,” art teacher Kathy Toews said.

According to Toews, the freshman center will follow a trend of openness and natural light. Classrooms will contain large windows, and some will contain movable walls that allow the rooms to open up to each other, creating an even larger room. Natural light will illuminate classrooms through the wall-length windows that will line both sides of several L-shaped rooms.

Another feature includes a cafeteria that will possibly contain an indoor stage as well as an outdoor stage. Middle school performances may be brought to this stage in the future.

“It’s not cast in stone yet,” Toews said. “Things will move as they decide exactly what’s going to be in the ninth grade center.”

The new center will solve the problem of “floating” classrooms, giving teachers who must share their classrooms their own rooms. The issue of overcrowding will also be resolved.

“I think it is going to make the campus less crowded but I feel like the seniors should get [the new campus] because I think the seniors have priority over the freshman,” Holland said.

Once the freshman center is completed, the three-year campus may undergo renovations. If the campus gets the approval from the school board, a bond election would have to be passed, followed by a whole new round of building plans.

In addition, the renovated school would also receive a new look. According to Toews, if the same group of architects works on this project, and their vision of Marcus is carried through, the circular design of the school would be replaced with wide halls that would allow for a regular traffic pattern.

“The trend is building campuses that look like junior colleges or colleges with wide open spaces,” Toews said. “The plan is that Marcus will be renovated after that, so they’re going to bring some of those things into Marcus.”

If the original campus is renovated, it may contain many of the same features as the new center.

“I would assume that we are probably going to benefit from this nice school being built [here], and eventually they will make our school a little bit nicer,” Shafferman said. “Not that it’s not a nice school, it’s just 30 years old.”