BY KARISSA MILLER

Ongoing problems with the two central office buildings are concerns for Iredell-Statesville Schools administrative staff.

After years of discussing having one central office staff building, the school board has begun early conversations about relocating staff at the ADR Education Center and Race Street office to the Career Academy and Technical School campus in Troutman in the future.

Now that the board has agreed to relocate the Pressly School to the Northview campus in June 2022, I-SS Chief Technology, Facilities, and Maintenance Officer Tim Ivey says another possible solution for some central office staff is in sight.

Ivey outlined two options for the board to consider:

♦ Option 1: Move the Discovery Program at The Springs (DPATS) and Exceptional Children program to Pressly.

“This would allow us to no longer have a lease with Barium Springs,” Ivey said. “It would put that onto our campus. We would no longer use their facility and campus on their grounds.”

This option would require some work in terms of ADA compliance. He added that he would bring the board a cost estimate if they are interested in that option.

♦ Option 2: Move all departments in ADR to Pressly School until central services are consolidated. The anticipated cost is $250,000.

This would involve all departments in ADR and Unity AIG department to be relocated to Pressly. The tech department, which is located in the basement of ADR, would then move into the space at Unity where AIG is located.

Ivey said that they would bring in cubicle type furniture to divide some of the rooms.

Board member Bill Howell said that he supports Option 2. He said that ADR costs a fortune to run and that they have already had to move staff out because of air quality issues.

“My whole point is savings in the long run,” Howell said. “I think the savings would be tremendous with not having to keep up ADR.”

Ivey said that it costs around $7,469 per month in work orders for ADR building. He said that translates to about $89,000 a year and doesn’t include labor.

Chairman Martin Page explained, in an interview, that once the board decides what to do with Pressly’s vacated building then they will begin to nail down plans for centralizing I-SS’ administrative staff at CATS facility.

Next Meeting

The board is scheduled to vote on Monday, December 13, at its regular meeting on what to do with the building. The meeting, which is open to the public, will take place at Career Academy and Technical School, 350 Old Murdock Road in Troutman, at 6 p.m.