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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2007 > April > 29 > Entry
Lakota built when Dayton bought
Lakota’s new administration building
The former Reynolds & Reynolds world headquarters in Dayton
By Scott Elliott
Staff Writer
In 2003, two large southwest Ohio school districts had the same problem — inadequate and inefficient central office space.
In Dayton, the city school district’s offices were spread around the city at three sites, and the central office was crowded and worn out.
Things were worse in Lakota schools, where administrators were crammed into a small building and a handful of trailers.
Lakota’s solution was to build a 27,000-square-foot administrative center at a cost of $2.2 million, paid entirely with interest earnings from a school construction bond issue. The building houses 65 people.
Dayton, on the other hand, purchased the former Reynolds & Reynolds World Headquarters, a 220,000-square-foot building, for $15.5 million in general funds and spent another $4 million on moving expenses and renovations. The two-building complex houses 226 Dayton administrators and support staff.
The disparity in cost and space, along with continuing complaints from the public about the perceived opulence of the new administration building, raise questions about the sensibility of the deal.
“You’ve got to think about where we were and what was happening then,” said Dayton Treasurer Stan Lucas, a key player in brokering the deal. “We looked at other sites and considered other options. Of the options we had at the time, this was the best option.”
Lakota Treasurer Alan Hutchinson said building new was the district’s last resort. Their first instinct, like Dayton’s, was to buy a building. The only property the district seriously considered was a former Auto Nation paint and repair center, but the office space proved too small.
Lakota then considered a warehouse “design-build”; approach, but wanted a more user-friendly building. Ultimately, it followed some of the design-build techniques, constructing a cheaper, concrete building that is less sturdy than the typical school but suitable for office space.
“We looked at eight or nine options before we settled on this one,” Hutchinson said. “We wanted to find something cheap we could renovate, but at the size we needed, there wasn’t anything available.”
By building new, the district could tailor the space to its needs. As a result, administrators in Lakota make do with less than half the space — about 415 square feet per worker compared with 976 square feet per worker for Dayton in the Reynolds buildings.
Although Lakota paid more, brick-for-brick, to build new than Dayton did by buying and renovating space — $81.48 per square foot in Lakota compared with $70 per square foot in Dayton — Hutchinson says his district saved money by forgoing a traditional structure. That would have cost around $130 per square foot, he said.
If Dayton could have built new at $130 per square foot, but stuck to Lakota’s smaller space per worker, a hypothetical new building might have cost about $12.2 million to house the same 226 workers in just more than 93,790 square feet — a savings of more than a fifth of the cost the district paid for the Reynolds buildings.
But the reality Dayton faced in 2003 was complicated, Lucas said.
“We wanted a building that was very centrally located and could house all of our people in one location to better serve the schools and parents,” he said.
The district considered other downtown properties and its own buildings, including the former Roosevelt High School. The Reynolds property was the best option then and has saved the district money, Lucas said. Having all administrators downtown allowed Dayton to cut about 50 positions.
“Consolidation worked for us,” he said. “We saved nearly $6 million after we paid the debt service on the building.”
Lucas also argued having the district’s offices downtown was good for the city.
“It was good for downtown,” he said. “We brought a lot of people downtown. And it’s great for our parents, who now have one-stop shopping.”
(Image credits: Ron Alvey and Jan Underwood, DDN)
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