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School offices to consolidate in one side of administration building
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
All of the offices inside the city school-district administration building will move to the newer part of the building or other locations within the district.
No decisions have been made on whether to try to sell or lease the older section of the building, said Michael Murphy, board member and chairman of the board’s finance and business committee.
“We’re still talking,” he said.
School-board members and other district officials have been discussing, for the past couple of months, the idea of selling or leasing all or part of the administration building.
The newer section, called the Ward building, fronts West Wood Street, while the older portion, known as the Rayen section, fronts Wick Avenue.
“We need to get a price on the repairs” for the roof on the Rayen side, Murphy said.
A June report from Youngstown architect Paul J. Ricciuti estimated that the building costs the district about $540,000 annually including custodial service, utilities and repairs. The report said keeping everything as-is isn’t a viable option.
In considering either leasing or selling a portion of the building, the board is trying to save money, Murphy said.
Among the departments in the old section of the building are those under Douglas Hiscox, deputy superintendent for academic affairs, but Murphy said the district plans to wait until after the start of the school year before the move happens. School starts Tuesday.
Last year, members of the Youngstown Schools Academic Distress Commission discussed the trend of district staffs moving out of central office and into school buildings where they are closer to students and teachers.
The administration building’s windows also need to be replaced and the air conditioning needs to be repaired.
The entire complex houses the superintendent’s, treasurer’s, human resources, security and business offices as well as the special education, curriculum and data departments, the board room and record storage.
The Rayen portion is the site of the original Rayen school.
Judge William Rayen died in 1854, but his estate provided funds for a trust and the founding of The Rayen School, where all of Youngstown’s children could be educated. It was built in 1866 and became the first public school in Mahoning County. The attached Ward building was added later.
The school moved to Benita Avenue when a new building was erected there in 1922, but the school district tore that down in 2007 as part of a 14-building school-rebuilding program.
The plan was to rebuild Rayen as a middle school, but the state, which paid 80 percent of the rebuilding program cost, scrapped that idea because of declining pupil enrollment.
The district maintains the Rayen name with Rayen Early College Middle School, which is housed inside the Chaney building of the city’s West Side.