School administration moving

PALMER -- Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District office personnel are getting ready for a much-needed move into the old Sherrod Elementary School. The school, built on land donated by Max Sherrod, a long-time pioneer of Palmer, was deemed unsafe for students but will work well as a new administrative building compared to the current administration building, which is not up to Occupational Safety and Health Administration regulations.

"Sherrod is no longer safe for students, because it is set up for open classrooms," said Kim Floyd, public information specialist for the school district. "There are no doors, and changing the set-up would have cost more than building the new school."

The new Sherrod Elementary School is located on the same property, along with the Swanson Elementary School. The two schools are partner schools, with Swanson housing kindergarten through second grade, and Sherrod with third through fifth grade.

As for the old Sherrod, the building itself is pretty intact, and Floyd says that having administration in the old school is good idea.

"It will centralize everything," Floyd said. "We will be able to walk guests through and say 'this is our purchasing department.'"

So far, the district has spent $52,000 in basic renovation for the building, with another $10,000 to $15,000 worth of work needing to be done before the new tenants move in, according to a report at Wednesday's school board meeting. Most of the money has been spent on cable in the building. Before the meeting, there were rumors floating that the project was costing more than $2 million.

Twelve departments with roughly 75 employees are scheduled to move into the building the last week of June. The district plans to have administration up and running the following week. The departments come from four separate buildings, the problematic central administration building, the office of instruction building (the two buildings are connected), the purchasing warehouse and the Darin building, which houses federal programs.

According to Matanuska-Susitna Borough Mayor John Duffy, plans for the old administrative building are up in the air.

"[Mat-Su community college] is exploring the use of that facility," Duffy said. "We are receptive to meeting their needs."

The school district found that the renovations to the old administration building would be more costly than moving into the old Sherrod.