District 220 headquarters may move late this year or early 2019
Barrington Area Unit District 220 administration employees are expected to move into a building that will become the new headquarters later than initially anticipated.
District 220 will go from a mostly residential neighborhood in Barrington to property PepsiCo Inc. most recently used for its Gatorade division. Last month, the district closed on the 20,000-square-foot office building at 515 W. Main St., across the street from Barrington High School, which the school board agreed to buy for $1.1 million.
Officials don't want to spend more than an estimated $1 million to make the structure suitable for district operations. Construction of a secure entrance, new carpeting, the building of false walls in open areas and fresh paint are among the possible renovations that officials have cited for the structure.
Lombard-based architect Gregory Stahler told the district's advisory facilities committee that the move of about 50 employees from the 310 James St. headquarters to Main Street won't happen in October as initially believed.
More conceptual design work and approval from Barrington village government are needed before construction bids would be sought in September, Stahler said. District 220 board members need to vote on a budgeted amount of money for the work.
Board member Joseph Ruffolo, who sits on the district's advisory facilities committee, said while the work could be paid off over two fiscal years, it needs to be completed before the employees move in.
"It's also a recipe for disaster in terms of productivity, in terms of all of the other things that we sometimes as a board don't think about," he said of the idea of doing the remodeling in stages. "We think of the dollars and cents, but we're not thinking that the people that we employ have jobs to do. And that this is very disruptive to the jobs that they do."
Vacant for a few years, PepsiCo's former Gatorade offices not only are expected to provide more space for administration employees, but they also will offer room for large gatherings of educators for professional development and more parking, district officials said.
District 220's current central office suffers from a lack of parking and work space, officials said.