CV leases two rooms at CenterPlace

The Central Valley School Board voted Monday to approve a lease with the city of Spokane Valley for two conference rooms at CenterPlace.

The agreement is for a $1,667 monthly payment for one large and one small conference room. Superintendent Ben Small said the city gave the district a discounted rate of $9.50 per square foot for the 11-month lease; ordinarily the cost would be $16 per square foot.

Small said the district needs the space for 11 initiatives, plus committee work and meetings. District offices have few suitable rooms for meetings, and Small said no rooms are large enough for many people to attend. Also, the rooms often are booked.

The district office board room, which Small said fits about 50 to 60 people, is the only room with presentation capabilities.

“This room is basically booked every single day,” Small said.

There is also a computer room on the second floor, which Small said isn’t really a good place to meet if the computers aren’t needed.

The “West Room” in the building holds 15 to 20 people for small committee works, and another smaller conference room holds about 10 people.

Along with those rooms, the district also uses the music room in the old University High School, but that building still has the same heating and air conditioning problems it had before the district closed it.

The old U-Hi also has Valley Christian High School as tenants, and Small said the district doesn’t want to interrupt their school day with meetings.

There also is the option of using some of the schools for meetings, but Small said that since many of the meetings take place during the day, using those buildings isn’t an option, since there are classes taking place.

He said the funds for the lease come out of the superintendent’s budget and he has made changes to fit the new lease into that budget. He said he is minimizing his travel this year and has cut back on supplies.

“We’re just going to have to do with less,” he said.

He added that the district is participating in a principal and teacher evaluation pilot program, and the program comes with grant funding. Since one of the committees in need of meeting space is for that pilot program, the grant funds will cover about a quarter of the 11-month lease.

Small said that the district has used the rooms 14 times since September. Renting space by the day would cost about $450 each time the district needed the room. If the district didn’t have the rooms at CenterPlace available, the it would have spent $6,300 to rent the space.

Small said that it’s not just teacher training for which the district needs the rooms. Along with the principal/teacher evaluation pilot committee, there are groups meeting to update the curriculum in elementary and middle school science, a committee that is meeting to come up with education specifications and building standards for the new and renovated schools on the capital facilities improvement plan and many more committees.

“They aren’t just meeting to meet,” Small said. “They are meeting to create products.”