School Board votes to renovate administration annex building

Written by Phil Cerroni

By Amanda Casanova

The Irving Independent School District Board of Trustees voted on Jan. 14 to spend more than $900,000 to renovate the administration annex building.

The administration annex building houses services for homeless and pregnant parenting students as well as adult education programs, but the aging facility is cramped and in need of updates, trustees said.

The board voted 4-2 for the renovation to the building.Only trustees Steven Jones and Gail Condor Wells voted against.

“I can’t support spending $900,000 for a building that is functional,” Jones said. “Yes it could be nicer, but it is working fine. I just can’t justify spending that kind of money on this building.”

The board decided to renovate the building with permanent walls, a choice that brings the total project cost to $905,221. The other option for the board was to use modular walls, which can be moved around, but provide less privacy. The second option would have cost about $100,000 less.

The renovation would take about six months.

“There have been many times we’ve moved people for a short amount of time,” Board President Ronda Huffstetler said. “We’re talking about safety updates, ADA updates. This building is going to have to renovated and updated to accommodate our programs. The money is there to do it.”

To pay for the renovations, the district is using money generated from the sale of school buses to Dallas County.

The board will consider hiring a contractor for the work at a later meeting.