News editor
USD 408 Superintendent Lee Leiker fielded questions from Marion Kiwanis Club members at the club’s Tuesday meeting.
Gene Winkler asked about the possibility of forced school consolidation, using Centre as an example. Leiker said the state tries to stay away from forcing schools to consolidate.
Casey Case asked about sports reclassification, particularly how Hillsboro is 2A in everything except football, which will remain 3A, while Marion is 3A in everything except football, which will change to 2A next season.
Leiker said football uses a different count — only freshmen through juniors — than other sports for classification, which count all high school grades. Marion will lose a large senior class in the spring, explaining the incongruity.
He said he doesn’t think Marion will drop to 2A in other sports next year, because the school has a large eighth-grade class.
Pauline Holub asked about arts programs at the school. Leiker said band and choir participation are down, partly because an increase in the number of required classes reduces the number of electives students can take.