Our District
Marion Center Area School District is a rural school district located in Indiana County encompassing the townships of Canoe, East Mahoning, Grant, Rayne, South Mahoning, Washington and the boroughs of Creekside, Ernest, Marion Center and Plumville. The school district comprises approximately 198 square miles and is the region’s second largest district. The district is primarily rural with major economic activities of cola mining, natural gas well drilling and agriculture. The District is comprised of three schools. The Junior-Senior High school houses grades 7-12, and two elementary buildings have Pre K through 6th grade students.
You can visit each buildings site for more specific information by clicking on the school name to the right of the picture on the home page.
Enrollment:
As of September 1, 2022, enrollments were as follows: 566 students in grades 7-12 at the Marion Center Junior-Senior High School; 344 PreK through 6th grade at W.A. McCreery Elementary and 294 PreK through 6th grade at Rayne Elementary, for a total of 1204 students. In tenth through twelfth, 104 high school students attend half day programs at the Indiana County Technology Center (ICTC) in Indiana, PA.
History:
The first school house on the site of Marion was located on or near the barn of Henry Etxrott on North Manor Street. In the Indiana Weekly Register, April 3, 1860, an advertisement by J. Brady, president of the East Mahoning School Board, asked for sealed proposals for constructing a school in Marion, 36 feet by 40 feet, with a fourteen-foot high story, having two rooms, each to seat 60 pupils. In 1901 a new grade school was erected on North Manor Street. We do not have an exact date for the completion of the Lower Marion School by the East Mahoning Directors, but it may have been in the 1870’s. Although located in East Mahoning Township, it was considered on of the Marion Center Schools since it was so near the borough line. The two-room school on the hill was acquired about 1870 by the Marion Borough directors.
The Marion Center High School began in 1916 as a three-year high school located in the Marion Center Elementary School building formerly located on North Manor Street. In 1923 the four-year high school plan was adopted. In 1929 a new brick building was erected by E.E. Nupp Construction, Co of Starford, PA. This is now incorporated in to the present high school building. In 1951 an important change came with the organization of a new high school jointure consisting of Canoe Independent Township, East Mahoning Township, Grant Township, Rayne Township, South Mahoning Township, Washington Township, and the boroughs of Marion Center, Plumville, and Creekside. The new joint school board, comprised of representatives from each district, supplanted the old Marion Center-East Mahoning Joint Board effective July 1, 1951. In 1955 the jointure was extended to include the elementary grades. In July, 1966, the school district’s official name became Marion Center Area School District and it was established as a third-class district under the new Reorganization Act. In the Fall of 2011, Canoe-Grant Elementary School and Creekside-Washington Elementary schools were closed as part of district consolidation. Beginning with the 2010-2011 school year, the district’s building configuration consists of two elementary buildings (Rayne and W.A. McCreery) for grades K-6 and one secondary building for grades 7-12.