East Aurora School District 131 board members are eyeing a plan to move administrators spread across several district offices into a new location.
They are considering a proposal to create a district office at what is now an East Aurora preschool building in the north part of the district. Some administrators currently housed in several “service centers” across the district would move to the new building, and students who attend school in that building would move elsewhere, said board member Bruce Schubert, a member of the school board committee reviewing the proposal.
The move would free the district to repurpose, sell, or demolish the district office that currently houses much of the district’s top leadership, he said.
East Aurora has been looking for years to move its administrative offices. The district’s interim superintendents and previous full-time superintendents have discussed the need to bring together staff housed in various locations across the district, Schubert said.
The superintendent’s office and the offices of many top level district administrators are now at the McKnight School Service Center on Fifth Street. The teaching and learning department, which oversees curriculum, students’ instruction and other services, is located in a storefront on East Indian Trail. The buildings and grounds department, which manages maintenance and construction, and the technology department are housed on Hill Avenue, and the district’s central registration office is located in the Child Service Center, a preschool building on Reckinger Road.
The proposal calls for moving administrators located at the McKnight service center and the teaching and learning department to the Child Service Center on Reckinger Road.
“Is it optimal to continue to have teaching and learning a few miles away?” Schubert said. “I don’t know if that’s optimal.”
The buildings and grounds department and likely the technology department would remain at Hill Avenue, where their equipment is already located, Schubert said.
If administrators move to what is now the Child Service Center, the building would likely require an addition, Schubert said. Preliminary numbers indicate a 12,000 square-foot addition to the building, creating about 75 parking spots and demolishing some structures around the existing building could cost about $6 million, he said.
“It would be an important move,” Schubert said. “I think it’s, in the end, it’s something I think is necessary and it’s a responsible action by us to be looking at this to ensure that the current and future needs of the district are being met.”
School board President Annette Johnson said the Reckinger Road building would be ideal because it would be cheaper than other options, and the district already owns the land. Now, the district is paying rent on the teaching and learning office on Indian Trail, and having administrators in several locations makes solving any problems that arise difficult.
The current McKnight Service Center could be demolished, sold or renovated. It could accommodate students currently attending school at the Child Service Center, or they could go to other district schools, Schubert said.
The building that is now the McKnight center was originally built in the 1920s, Schubert said. It partially burned in a fire in the 1950s, and a new addition was added in the 1960s, he said.
The proposal is preliminary, and must be reviewed further and balanced with other district needs, Schubert said. He expected to discuss the move further with board members at an upcoming meeting.
