Marcum Made his Mark in Marion

This from the Lebanon Enterprise:

Roger Marcum didn’t receive a very warm welcome when he was hired to be the Marion County Superintendent in 1999.

In fact, some people were downright cold to him.

Marcum vividly remembers the night the Marion County Board of Education hired him. At least 100 or more people had gathered in support of another candidate and the atmosphere was unpleasant, to say the least. His wife, Bobbie, came with him to the meeting, and as they drove home that night he noticed tears streaming down her face.

“They don’t seem to want us there,” she said.

But, a gut feeling told Marcum that Marion County was where he was meant to be. While he was a superintendent candidate finalist in two other counties at the time, Clark and Franklin, something was calling him to Marion County.

“This felt right,” he said. “I can’t explain it. But, I felt that this was a community that was hungry to move forward and they wanted the school district to help lead them.”

Under his leadership the Marion County School District’s student achievement has improved tremendously. Today, Marion County is No. 31 out of 175 school districts in the state, putting it in the top 20 percent of all Kentucky school districts.

So, as he prepares to leave Marion County and retire this year, it’s no surprise that many people don’t want to see him go...