Archive: Around Town

Last October Lansing's Board of Education voted to move the District Offices before the start of the 2006-2007 school year.  "The work space is not appropriate for a couple of reasons," Interim Superintendent Tiffany Phillips told the board. "One, confidentiality. Two, there's no place for storage of materials. And it's just not a place that you want to represent the school district."  She noted that toxic mold had been a problem in the building and that constant monitoring was necessary.  She recommended a temporary solution, either renting offices nearby or leasing a temporary building, giving the District time to come up with an affordable permanent solution.

At last Monday's BOE meeting practical issues affecting the move were discussed.  Here is a primer on the office location issue.

What exactly is wrong with the current office?

There is not enough room for the 8 employees who work in it.  Storage space is inadequate.  The building is prone to flooding and toxic mold.  A secondary issue is that it makes a poor impression on visitors to the District.

Why isn't the BOE renting office space or a temporary building?

BOE President Bonita Lindberg says the Board looked into the possibility and found that renting offices nearby would cost the District about $3,000 per month, and that renting a temporary building would be similarly expensive and would require a capital vote.

What was the plan?

Four or five classrooms on the second floor in the South wing of the Elementary school were to be converted to office space.  The rooms would have to be subdivided, and new ventilation and heating units would be needed to heat the resulting rooms that did not end up with the existing heating units.  The District estimated the cost would be $200,000.  This cost was challenged by an engineer at the Monday meeting,  but the intention was to save taxpayers money.

How did moving the 5th grade fit into the plan?

If the 5th grade moved into the Elementary school the classrooms could be used as-is.  They are already configured as usable classrooms.  The heating/ventilation units were only needed, because if you partitioned a classroom into multiple offices the resulting rooms would not all have heating/ventilation units. 

The rooms vacated in the Middle School would not need the same treatment, making it considerably less expensive to move the offices there.

Where will the District offices go now?

We don't know.  One idea Lewis had for the future was to locate them in the Tech building behind the Middle  School, but that may cost too much to accomplish now.  Middle School teachers offered their faculty room and adjoining rooms.  That and other options will be explored in the near future.  All possibilities are being explored.

Superintendent Lewis says "We were going to put them in the Elementary School. It was off the table.  It's back on the table."

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