GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Discussions on how Green Bay’s public schools can save money will turn to the district office building this month.
The school board has already approved closing three neighborhood elementary schools as the district faces a budget deficit and declining enrollment.
During recent school board meetings, board member Andrew Becker has been pushing administrators to begin the discussion of possibly closing the three-story district office building on Broadway.
“If we are having to close buildings because of funding, why wouldn’t we take a look at one of the biggest buildings, especially a building I think there’s a good chance there’s some resale value and there’s some great things for the city that could be done.”
The 95-year-old building was among 12 buildings recommended to close earlier this year. A 26-member community taskforce spent the first few months of the year researching the district’s 42 buildings.
The group made its decision, in part, because the district office building, commonly referred to as DOB, needs $8.6 million in work, $6.6 million of which is classified as medium priority.
The community members also felt DOB operations could move into a school building that would otherwise remain half empty or be useless if combined with another school below capacity.
A survey of 3,664 residents found 78.3% of respondents supported relocating DOB’s operations.
“Is there really a benefit to it?” questioned school board president Laura McCoy during an October 9th meeting.
Despite the taskforce recommendation, some school board members haven’t seemed convinced at recent meetings that a move would be in the district’s best interests.
“There’s a lot of things that happen in this building that I think a lot of people aren’t even aware of and moving it is going to be incredibly expensive,” said McCoy.
So how expensive would it be to move out of here? And how much would the district save each year with its closure or make by selling it? FOX 11 asked the district officials for those answers, and they told us they’d like to provide them to the school board first, which is expected to happen at the next meeting on November 13th.
“The DOB piece, we’re going to bring that forward,” said Claude Tiller, the district’s superintendent during a school board meeting on October 23rd. “You’ll see. We would like also the board members to come and take a tour before we present the monies about moving DOB so you can see what goes into DOB.”
FOX 11 asked for a tour, but were told we’d have to wait until after that upcoming meeting.
We were told some of the things we will eventually see that goes beyond people working in cubicles. There’s a garage here where all district vehicles are maintained, along with shops for painting and wood working needs.
“We have the paint system, I could go on all that, but I won’t,” said Tiller. “There’s a lot that goes into DOB. You can’t just facelift and move sections of DOB because of continuity that has to happen, so there’s a lot that goes into this.”
“Maybe some of those things do stay in a part of DOB and the rest of it perhaps would be an option that would be attractive to developers,” said Becker.
The DOB discussion is also expected to include the nearby Welcome Center or former Cup O Joy building. The district purchased it two years ago for $503,000 and spent $99,643 to renovate it.
At its last meeting, the school board agreed to revise a referendum resolution that included moving district offices into West High School. That was done at the request of administrators to maintain flexibility on how to fill open space at West.
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