Central Office, Alternative School to Relocate

Now that the decision has been made about school consolidation, school administrators have moved onto the next big task at hand – relocating the Central Office to what is now Rock Hall Elementary School and moving the Alternative School to Kent County High School.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Barbara Wheeler and Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Fay Miller were at the Tuesday county commissioners’ meeting to request permission to move forward since funds for the two moves would eventually come from the sale of 215 Washington Ave., which is county property. But until the property is sold, the county would need to provide the funds for the two proposals.

A rough estimate for the relocation of the Central Office to RHES is more than $200,000: $6,000 to retain the services of Becker Morgan to assist with office design and minor renovations; $3,148 for restroom alterations; $12,000 for the cost of the move; $9,681.83 for improvements to technology to support administrative programs; $2,000 for a new antenna and to move the radio system used to communicate with buses; and $170,360 for a new phone system, which would save almost $50,000 a year over the current system. Unknown is the cost of office setups, such as partitions and cubicles.

Miller stressed that the consolidation of county schools would come before the Central Office move so that everything is in place by the start of the 2010-2011 school year on Aug. 23.

“We plan to start moving schools the Monday after school is closed,” she said.

Included in that big move is the Alternative School, which would be housed in a modular building in front of the athletic fields at the high school. The 64 x 36 custom building would include a principal’s office, four classrooms, a computer room, and bathrooms.

Wheeler said that the Alternative School needs to be moved because the “current space is no longer adequate. We need to have a space dedicated to the Alternative Program, a wing or floor of a building, so students can’t socialize with their friends because that defeats the purpose of the program.”

By moving the Alternative School to the high school the administration hopes to eliminate three additional bus routes. Alternative School students could ride the regular buses, and school would start at the same time as the high school. Currently the Alternative School – which is housed at Rock Hall Middle School – runs from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Money originally budgeted for buses to the Alternative School could then be used for additional bus contracts to cut back on travel time for students attending other county schools.

The rough back-of-the-envelope estimate for the Alternative School relocation is $156,310: $5,000 to retain the services of Becker Morgan to prepare bid specs, site civil development study, and obtain permits; $126,310 for the modular building; and $25,000 for water and sewer hook-up.

The commissioners asked to see a solid number for office setups for the Central Office at RHES, but gave their permission for administrators to proceed with the moves.