Incomplete

With the recent approval of about $200,000 for repair of the roof on its downtown central office, Lenoir City Schools has invested more than $1 million in the building and still has work to do.

The school system closed on the building, which was formerly owned by United Community Bank, in January 2016.

“Back in 2010 there was a master plan laid out to do two things — to add on to the intermediate school building because we were overcrowded there, and to revitalize the old central office because we didn’t have enough room for business offices,” Jeanne Barker, Lenoir City director of schools, said. “... There had been for a long time a recognition that there is a need to do something, but limited funds and what’s best was just — we just kept putting it off and putting it off. So we were at a point where we needed to do something. So when this opportunity arose we thought, ‘Well, let’s do our due diligence’.”

After an initial asking price of about $1 million for the building, the school system negotiated with UCB for a $400,000 purchase.

An architectural report on the building provided the school system with a list of needs, which included the recently approved roof repair, which was used to negotiate the price.

“They believed it was a solid building with solid bones and something good to work with,” Barker said.

Using estimates from 2013, the price was compared against three options the school system considered for expansion.

Adding five additional offices at the old central office building was estimated at $327,360. Adding on the central office building and expanding offices at Lenoir City Intermediate/Middle School would cost $770,000. Adding two more classrooms at LCIMS would cost another $259,000.

Those plans from 2013 were never pursued by former superintendent Wayne Miller because “the money didn’t make sense,” Rick Chadwick, Lenoir City Board of Education chairman, said, calling the downtown purchase a “fantastic deal.”

“I think somebody would have gobbled that up for the price they were selling it for,” Chadwick said. “Some kind of office or some kind of construction outfit, somebody.”

Barker believed the estimates for other options would come in higher, and that the only school to benefit would be LCIMS.

“Data was at the high school, all the technology was at the middle school, special ed was at the middle school, federal projects was at the middle school and our enrollment at the middle school was growing,” Barker said. “We looked at how we can utilize space better for kids out at the schools and pool all of those people together in an office space.”

Renovating offices

Renovation costs since the purchase have piled up, but Barker maintains they are well within what was anticipated.

Before opening the building, about $550,000 was spent on the second and third floors, which Barker said was lower than the estimated costs provided by architects.

With the addition of HVAC work, outdoor signage and roof repair, the project has easily exceeded the $1 million mark.

As with work on the second and third floors, the roof repair included a redesign to lower costs. Work initially came in “out of reach” before being negotiated down.

“I have to be very frugal and I feel like I have to justify what we have done,” Barker said. “There was plenty of thought behind it and the reasons are in line with what we need to accomplish for our kids. We’ve tried to do so with being very responsible in the way that we spend our money. So actually the renovations came lower than what the architects had initially drawn because we made cuts to try to stay under the budget.”

School officials have been happy with the renovations so far, which include a conference room on the third floor used for teacher training. The room has also been loaned out for use by various organizations in the community, Barker said.

“Our new orientation this year, that’s where we brought all our new teachers,” Chadwick said. “We never could have done that at the old central office. It’s benefitted everybody in the community and it will once we get the bottom floor finished.”

Future plans?

First floor renovations have yet to begin and there is no timeline for beginning work.

“We’ve got the working parts done — the third floor and the second floor,” Chadwick said. “We’re just waiting until we’ve got the money to do the bottom floor, the board room and other rooms. ... This year’s budget was a little tight so we’re just going to hold off. We don’t want to spend money we don’t have.”

With the second floor used to house business personnel and the third floor focused on teaching, hopes are to use the first floor as community space.

“That’s where we wanted to open that up during the evenings to our students and families,” Barker said. “I would even like to have — I’ve talked with the bank and some other people ... about having some entrepreneurship classes that would be available to anybody in the community. So that kind of feel. I want the first floor about community, the second floor about business and the third floor about teachers, because we do want to be a hub of activity for the city. We’re not quite there yet.”

Before the first floor can be opened to students as a learning area, bathrooms would need to be brought up to Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

When renovated, the bottom floor could include a children’s reading area, weeknight tutoring space and a wellness center for students. There is currently no money in the budget for bottom floor renovations.

“We have some ideas, but until we can get it into usable space that will meet code then — it’s been slow,” Barker said.

When the central office moved downtown, plans were originally to move the family resource center into the old office building and use the current family resource center space for elementary school classroom space. Instead, the old central office is being brought up to code to be used to house students from the system’s online initiative iLearn Institute.

“Right now they’re finalizing the mechanical piece, which would be the HVAC piece, then the plans go to the state fire marshal to get them approved,” Barker said. “Once they’re approved then we have plans to move students on that site as well. It will be middle and high school. It will be some of our iLearn classes. Then we’re also looking at making that a three-legged stool where it will serve some middle school students and some high school students and our online students together.”

While renovation costs have piled up, and the building is not where school officials hoped it would be in regards to work on the bottom floor, Barker stands by the purchase as being the best decision for the system.

“It was the only way I felt we could get what we needed without adding on a wing or something like that to another building,” she said. “By having this central building, it allowed each one of the three schools to regain space that they needed. So instead of having to address three different things at three different schools, we’ve been able to consolidate that within one building.

“... It’s not a perfect building, but it is meeting our needs and I think we have been able to utilize it,” Barker added.