Unit 1 offices moving across town

    Moving day has arrived for the Unit 1 School District’s administrative staff.
    Superintendent Dr. Kent Bugg reports the move is slated for Thursday in advance of the administration center’s opening next week.
    Construction and landscaping crews spent the first part of the week putting the finishing touches on the 6,545 sq. foot office building located on the Coal City Middle School campus.
    For close to 30 years, the district’s administrative staff has been working out of a mobile classroom that was converted into office space located south of the intermediate school.
    The space has housed the superintendent’s office as well as business services and curriculum, and at one time included a meeting room for the board of education.
    For years the board of education talked about moving the offices, but when it came time to approve the expenditure it passed on the plan in order to put the dollars toward other projects.
    When the board’s Finance Committee recommended the board move forward to complete projects outlined on its short and long-term capital projects list, a directive to be completed during the current property tax agreement with Exelon Generation, plans were introduced to construct a new administrative center.
    After rejecting the initial project bids, the building was scaled down to fit within the board’s construction budget.
    R.L. Sohol, a general contractor from Plainfield, was awarded the bid at $1.67 million and construction began  in fall 2016.
    The new facility provides office space for the superintendent and directors of business services, curriculum and instruction and special populations. The new building includes designated spaces for human resources and accounting, a testing center and meeting room to be utilized by the board of education and community organizations.
    The board of education will hold its July meeting at in the new board room at 6 p.m. on Thursday, July 6. The meeting is open to the public.