School offices could move out of $15,000-per-month Press Building
District seeks new estimate for renovations, state monitor says
For district administrative offices, a move from the former Asbury Park Press building in the downtown to the district-owned Barack H. Obama Building is not out of the question yet.
State-appointed fiscal monitor Lester Richens said at last night’s board of education [BOE] meeting that the district is seeking an estimate for pared-down renovations. In the past, officials have said the district hasn’t made the move to the Obama school because estimates for renovations were so steep.
“We’ve been having meetings with an architect for a scaled-down project that’s not anywhere near $1.6 million,” a previous estimate the district received, Richens said.
With a more scaled-down project, a feasibility plan for the move could be in place by July of this year. The district’s lease with the Press Building, located on Mattison Avenue in the heart of the downtown, ends July 1, 2013, he said.
The district’s base rent at that building is $148,000, according to district communications officer Christine Coloma. After taxes and fees, it comes to $189,327, or about $15,000 per month.
“We received two different estimates for the Barack Obama Building to be renovated to fit the needs of central offices to be moved there,” Coloma said in an email. “The first estimate was a renovation of the entire third floor, which would have been $2.6 million, we then asked for a scaled-down version of the renovation and were given a $1.6 million estimate.”
The district will receive a new “bare bones renovation” estimate in the next week or so, she said.
Members of the school’s faculty and the public have frequently questioned the district’s decision to stay in downtown Asbury Park while a former school is apparently available on Bangs Avenue. The Obama Building, which previously functioned as an elementary school, currently houses the district’s child study team and early childhood department. It also serves as a parent center.
John Napolitani, the head of the district’s teachers’ union, asked the board what specific renovations need to be done to house the offices at the former school.
“Where is this $1.6 million to renovate the building coming from?” he said. “People busted their chops to get that building up to snuff.”
Board members did not respond to his question.
Superintendent Denise Lowe “started discussions about possibly moving there” as soon as the Barack Obama school was closed, Coloma said in an email, “but it needs to be financially a right decision. We will see what this new set of quotes is like and bring [them] back to the Board Committee for discussion.”
