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Lansing Superintendent of Schools Stephen Grimm announced Monday that plans are going ahead to move the district office into the elementary school.  Grimm says that moving the office will pay for itself in energy savings.  "The idea is that it almost pays for itself in the first year, and we recoup that every year," he said.  "So moving into the elementary school is a good idea.  Not to mention all of the other pieces.  The Lansing Star has a great article on it from a couple of years back about the health hazards associated with it.  It's just good for people."  (Click here for the article.)

Moving the district office has been on at least three superintendents' slates for at least the last nine years.  But with other priorities and failed capital projects, the move was put on hold time after time.  Various plans failed to come to fruition.  In 2006 Architects have estimated that putting a building on the old restaurant site below the middle school would cost $1.1 million dollars.  A plan to move the offices to the high school was included in the capital project that was voted down a few years ago.  At that time moving to the elementary school was nixed, in part because of security concerns.

About a year ago a new rood was put on the current building and other repairs were made to try to make up for serious leaks and other structural problems in the converted house.  But the repairs were tantamount to applying a band aid to the offices, and didn't begin to address crowded conditions.  The building has also suffered flooding, mold, cold temperatures in winter and a shopping list of ills that the seven employees who work there have been forced to suffer for years.  The building is so small that for years the district has rented a trailer to hold records.

But with the Lansing/Groton teacher Center installed in the new wing of the elementary school, an area of the second story is now accessible through its own entrance, providing some separation between adult activities and school classrooms.  Grimm says that part of the teacher center along with what is now the child care classrooms will be used for the new administrative offices.  Buildings and Grounds Supervisor Glenn Fenner is getting estimates on constructing new walls and adapting the area as economically as possible.


"We are trying to do this as affordably as possible," Grimm said.  "Glenn is trying to be very wise and minimalist in terms of just putting up what we need, and using all of our existing furniture.  We will also have some savings that we'll be able to recoup by closing down what we have now in the district office... probably about $1,500 in electricity, $1,000 in natural gas, and close to $4,000 in the documents storage trailer."

Grimm says that with the move the district will stop running a compressor pump station at the transportation garage that costs $10,000 per year.  He says savings this year are expected to be $6,000.

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