Central-office real estate: can you upgrade your headquarters without looking self-serving?

School Administrator, August, 2003 by Priscilla Pardini

Converted Homes

In other districts, such as Minneapolis, officials have maintained the status quo, saying they long ago found creative ways to provide employees with adequate space. That's the case in the School District of the Chathams in northwestern New Jersey, where district officials for years have successfully shared a building with local police and other municipal employees. The 3,000-student school district contributes about $25,000 a year to the municipal coffers to cover its share of utilities and maintenance in the building, which was once a school.

Superintendent Joe Schneider says that although officials went to the voters in 1998 seeking money for school construction, they never considered expanding or upgrading the central office. "These are very adequate accommodations, and we never really looked at additional office space," he says. "Quite frankly, it's tough enough to get a referendum passed to build schools, let alone administrative space.

Working out of a municipal building, though perhaps not ideal, may look good to school officials in small, rural school districts, many of whom work out of converted houses. "I'm sitting in a house right now," says Bruce Burpee, director of curriculum, instruction and assessment for the 1,500-student Meridian School District north of Seattle. (Burpee once worked in what once was a bedroom, which he shared with a secretary. "Be careful how you put that," he cautions.)

Burpee says working out of a former kitchen or dining room is not all that uncommon in his part of the country. "You do what you can to find adequate space, and I think rural systems have a bigger challenge in that regard," he says. A bond issue for administrative purposes "is not necessarily the easiest thing to sell."

No Extravagance

Officials in Charleston, S.C., had to overcome significant opposition before getting their new headquarters, says Jerry Hartley, executive director of business services for the Charleston County School District. "There were letters to the editor, phone calls to talk radio. People were more concerned about providing classroom space, which is a valid argument. But with asbestos problems and litigation looming, this was the best thing to do at the time."

The new building, which was occupied in 1992, is a three-story concrete and stucco structure located downtown next door to the Charleston Municipal Auditorium. It replaced not only the old Citadel building but also a second administrative site that, according to Hartley, was in even worse condition.

"That building was riddled with asbestos. It was falling off the ceiling," he says. As for the new building, Hartley says it isn't extravagant. "It's made of concrete and dryboard, not marble. It's certainly no Taj Mahal."

Officials financed the construction of the building under provisions of a now-defunct state law that allowed the district to form a corporation with school board members serving as directors. The board raised $12 million by selling certificates of participation in the corporation and used the money for the new headquarters. For the last 11 years the district has been leasing the building from the corporation. It will own the building, free and clear, in 2008.