The District 205 Board of Education has approved the purchase of the building that houses Northwoods Church and the Galesburg Area Vocational Center for a total of $1.3M.
The district was renting space to house the GAVC from Northwoods Church as part of the renovation project at Galesburg High School.
Currently, the district pays $5,400 a month to rent space in the building for the GAVC, and the rent increases every year throughout the term of the contract.
Board member Maury Lyon says that the cost to rent the space for the GAVC would equal to half of the total purchase price once the contract had come to full term. That’s before possibly exercising an extension, adding an additional five years. Plus, the district now has the entire building to utilize instead of just a quarter of it.
Outgoing board member Nicholas Walters, prior to the board entering the agreement with Northwoods, had advocated for purchasing the building.
“Before we engaged in a lease with Northwoods Church, I strongly advocated that we look into a pursue purchasing the property prior to actually signing a lease agreement with them. And at the time, they were not interested in selling the space, which is why we went the route we did. And then over the course of time, the property has now become available.”
Because the building gives the district four times the amount of space, the district could move
Superintendent Dr. John Asplund said that the biggest reason the district would want the building would be to move and expand Bright Futures Pre-Kindergarten.
“If anybody listened to [President Joe Biden’s address] last night, he mentioned a stronger commitment to pre-school for all. We’d like to provide much more ample space, more age-appropriate space, more outdoor space, better outdoor space, for our preschool young learners. And this facility, in concert with some available grant funds that would not have been available otherwise, gives us a very unique opportunity, to spend some money that’s currently not operating fund money, to provide state-of-the-art space for our youngest students.”
Asplund floated the idea that the central office could be moved to that location but emphasized that was not a primary reason for wanting the space. He said if the central office was moved, it would put the office across the street from the future 7-12 Learning Center, where half of the school district population would be. He added that some space could be used for community space.
Asplund added that the District would be closing on the building probably around June and students could be utilizing the space in about a year.
Board member Rodney Phelps emphasized that the district has received enough stimulus money to pay for the purchase of the building, saying that the district, “wasn’t being frivolous with money we don’t have,” and called it the right move.
The board approved the purchase unanimously.
Once the new board was seated, the board elected Rod Scherpe as the new Board President. Courtney Rodriguez was elected as Board Vice-President. Maury Lyon was re-elected as board Secretary.
