Cache County School District offices find a new home
The Cache County School Board has voted to authorize the purchase of a building which will become the new home of the Cache County School District offices. The building is located at 84 East 2400 North in North Logan, just south of the recently closed Movies 5 complex and across the street and east of the Copper Mill restaurant. Constructed in 2005, the 32,393 square foot building sits on 3.18 acres and was previously used by Direct Financial Solutions.
While there has been discussion of the need for a new district office for several years, it was not until recently that circumstances presented themselves to allow this to become a reality. The district is able to acquire this building at approximately half of what it would cost to construct a new building of comparable size and composition. Additionally, the purchased building has an almost turn-key technology infrastructure, is furnished, fully landscaped, and has a sizeable parking lot.
Cache County School Board President Kathy Christiansen has long supported efforts to find an appropriate home for the school district offices. “This new building represents a wonderful opportunity for our school district,” she said. “We’ll have an office building that can accommodate our needs now and well into the future.” Board member Allen Grunig also believes the new building will “be a positive step forward as a location for district personnel.”
Over the last decade, Cache County School District has experienced unprecedented growth. The focus of two bond projects, one in 2006 and the other in 2013, was to ensure the district could adequately accommodate this growth. The 2006 bond initiative focused mainly on resolving elementary growth and the 2013 bond initiative focused on accommodating growth in secondary grades, as well as resolving seismic concerns across the district’s 25 schools.
In each of these bond initiatives, bond committees recommended replacement of an aging district office building. However, this recommendation was never acted upon due to more pressing priorities. “We felt we had to first take care of the needs of students,” explained Superintendent Steve Norton. ”Building a new district office just didn’t rise to the top of our priority list. We also did not want to have to bond for a new district office building.”
Funds for the newly acquired building are not coming from bond funds where property taxes repay the debt, but instead, they come primarily from one-time carryover monies in the capital outlay and general fund. “Our main priority over the last four years has been to meet the commitments we made to the public by completing the projects outlined in the 2013 bond initiative,” explained Dale Hansen, the district’s business administrator. “During that time, we set aside funds from the general and capital outlay funds for any potential cost overruns. To the credit of everyone involved, we had adequate funds to not only complete our building projects, but to also take advantage of this opportunity.”
Parts of the district office’s current building were first constructed in 1896 and expanded in 1904. In 1915, additions were made and the building became the North Logan Elementary School. Twenty-four years later, a major expansion took place to accommodate grades first through eighth. After serving as an elementary school, it housed the Cache County School District offices, North Logan City offices and served for a short time as the district’s alternative high school. A maintenance shop was added in 1972 and a warehouse in 1981, which was expanded in 1988. The Professional Development and Technology Building was added in 2007 and houses technology support staff, several training rooms, and the district’s board room.
The district will continue to utilize the buildings at its current location, including the boardroom, training rooms, and warehouse facilities. Several other school support services will also be housed at this location. “If you look at the current state of the district,” added Superintendent Norton, “we are well-positioned to house and educate our current students and to provide support for our schools. We are very fortunate as a district to have such a supportive community.”