Our District has worked hard to develop the District Strategic Plan, and one of the goals within that plan is to address our facilities and learning environments to meet the district’s needs. Through community, staff, and student engagement, Marquette Area Public Schools aims to develop a Facility Master Plan that provides direction on the projects and timeline of needs identified within the district. 

We are committed to continued conversations with you as we look ahead to the future needs of our students and community.

Last year, the State of Michigan paid for an infrastructure study for every school district in the state; this assessment carefully studied the needs of each school site at Marquette Area Public Schools. More than $100 million of critical infrastructure and building system needs were identified, which is similar to what our own study found. 

Following the completion of the comprehensive Facility Study (link), we were able to identify areas of need in our school buildings and develop a Master Plan to assist with the future planning needs of the district.

In 2023, Marquette-area voters renewed a “sinking fund.” This fund provides MAPS with about $1.3 million each year for building repairs. We sincerely appreciate this sinking fund financial support. To fund significant building updates, like those identified in the infrastructure studies, we would need to ask local voters to consider a bond proposal. 

To engage the community, the district plans to hold Facilities Planning Community Listening Sessions on September 22 and 23, 2025 at 5:30 PM, in order to gather feedback on how and when to address the identified district needs as we create our facilities master plan (additional information regarding these sessions will be available soon).

The purpose of these Listening Sessions is to inform the community of the current state of our buildings, gain valuable community input, and answer any questions regarding the facilities study and district-wide survey. 

The district and the school board will also gather information from district staff regarding the facilities study to further identify areas of focus for our staff

Before we move any further, we need feedback from our community and taxpayers. The district will be conducting a community-wide survey in the Fall that will be shared with all staff and mailed to every household in the school district to gather qualitative and quantitative data to provide our School Board and district administration feedback on if the community is willing to invest in our facilities, what projects they prioritized and when we should get started.

To keep all feedback confidential, responses are collected by School Perceptions, an independent education research firm. Besides printing and mailing, the survey was developed at no cost to Marquette Area Public Schools. 

Stay tuned for more details coming soon on how you can learn more and provide feedback!

Residents will have two easy ways to take the survey:

1. Complete the paper survey and mail it back to School Perceptions in the post-paid envelope provided

2. Log on to the website listed on the paper survey, enter the unique access code, and take the survey online

To get additional survey copies for members of your household, please contact the district office. 

Survey results will be reported at a board meeting in October and available on this website following the meeting. 

If you have questions or comments, you can contact the District at (906) 225-4200 or mapsinfo@mapsnet.org. 

Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback on a plan that could impact Marquette-area students for generations to come.