Helena schools honor Marla and Sean Maharg as they retire

Helena Public Schools is honoring Marla and Sean Maharg as both retire after 22 years, just as the district moves from a hard-fought bond vote into a three-year construction plan for Capital High, Helena High and Kessler Elementary. The farewell closes the first season of From the Ground Up and lands in the middle of a bigger transition for Helena families, staff and students.

The district’s homepage message ties the Mahargs’ departure to graduation, retirements, the end of the school year and the start of an era shaped by school bond work. Helena Public Schools launched its master facilities planning process in fall 2022, and on Feb. 28, 2025, Superintendent Rex Weltz told trustees the district could no longer wait to address failing buildings, changing population trends and low staff pay. That recommendation set up a $240 million high school measure and a $43 million elementary measure for major changes at Capital High, Helena High and Kessler Elementary.

The bond went before voters in Lewis and Clark County in September and passed by the narrowest of margins. Unofficial results showed Helena High SD 1 ahead 11,151 to 10,793, or 50.82% to 49.18%, and Helena Elementary SD 1 ahead 10,631 to 10,256, or 50.90% to 49.10%. County totals showed 21,944 votes cast in the high school election and 20,887 in the elementary election, and reporting after the vote said Helena residents approved $283 million in bonds by fewer than 400 votes. Trustees certified the results on Sept. 24, 2025, and moved into planning for a three-year construction timeline.

That is what gives the Mahargs’ retirement its weight. When two longtime employees leave a district in the middle of a facilities overhaul, the hardest work to replace is often the institutional memory that keeps daily operations steady, the knowledge of student needs, campus routines and the small fixes that prevent bigger disruptions. Those are the people who know how schedules really run, which systems need attention first and how to keep relationships with families intact when the ground is shifting.

Helena Public Schools is already trying to show that it can manage both sides of the transition. By Feb. 6, 2026, the district said it had completed an almost 25-week process to hire architects and GCCMs for the three-school project, and in November 2025 it selected Helena-based Mosaic Architecture to design the new Kessler Elementary School. The new building is planned to include energy-efficient classrooms, a compliant kitchen and fire suppression system, improved gym and multipurpose spaces and support for future educational needs, with an opening goal of fall 2028.

Board chair Jennifer McKee said after the bond passed and sold that Helena residents were acting for themselves and that the district’s financial position would reduce taxpayer costs. That same public confidence now has to carry the district through retirements, rebuilding and the loss of experience that comes when people like Marla and Sean Maharg leave after more than two decades of service.