NORTHFIELD — Hoping to save the district money coming into fiscal year 2018, Pioneer Valley Regional School District plans to move its central offices back to the Pioneer campus.
Currently, the central offices are in a leased 2,806-square-foot space at 168 Main St. in downtown Northfield. The space costs $3,030 a month to lease, a cost that Superintendent Ruth Miller wants to eliminate.
“How much money are you going to spend to have office space for seven or eight people?” Miller questioned. “(The Main Street office) has been a very good place to land initially, but I want that money to go back into programming for the kids.”
Up until January 2016, the central offices were in three single-story modular buildings behind Pioneer. However, foundation cracks, rust and roof leaks, outdated electrical, communication and alarm systems, and mold in the basements led Pioneer administrators to relocate.
The offices would not be returned to the modulars. Though they are still on the campus, Pioneer administrators are looking to have them removed.
Instead, the building and grounds subcommittee toured Pioneer during a Thursday meeting. Led by Facilities Director Tim Brandl and Assistant Superintendent Gail Healy, the subcommittee viewed the most likely space for the central offices: rooms 206, 207 and 208.
“This is the best place as far as not disrupting students,” Healy said during the tour. “This is where we have found to be the most logical, least intrusive, least expensive and it works for kids.”
“The technology is already there, the services are already there,” Miller said.
The classrooms are in a wing not far from the school’s main office, but removed from more heavily trafficked hallways. The classrooms are also next to an outside door, where Healy said a door buzzer could be installed to allow for easier access to the central offices.
Because administrators are proposing a roughly 13-percent reduction in staff for next school year, Miller said more classroom space would be available in the school to fit the central offices.
Miller hopes to have the offices moved by the end of June, when the 18-month lease of the Main Street office space will end. Miller said there is a possibility the district could lease the space on a month-to-month basis if necessary, but she hasn’t factored that cost into the fiscal year 2018 budget.
Following the tour, the building and grounds subcommittee voted unanimously to recommend to the School Committee that the offices be moved to Pioneer’s 200 wing. Healy expects the committee will discuss the move at the February or March meetings.
Miller said Brandl will be tasked with figuring out how to divide the classrooms into cubicles and ultimately create “a very nice space, at the absolute lowest cost.”