The Philomath School District and Philomath Youth Activities Club have signed a facility-use agreement that will provide a new home for the district’s student services office and its special education transition program.
The agreement allows the school district to use PYAC’s building at 401 S. 19th St. rent-free while the youth organization works toward a major facilities expansion.
Superintendent Susan Halliday approached the School Board at its Jan. 8 meeting to request authority to negotiate the agreement with PYAC. The district and PYAC finalized the agreement late last week.
“Obviously, the district and PYAC has had a deep partnership for a long time … and this again is a great example of that,” School Board Chair Tom Klipfel said.
The school district will move its student services office — which includes Director Kelsey Greydanus and two staffers — from the high school to the 19th Street location. The district will carry insurance, assume utility costs and pay for basic maintenance and upkeep.
“The idea is this year to move our student services program into that space and out of the high school and in the fall to be able to look at our special education transition program living there,” Halliday said.
The transition program serves students ages 18 to 21 who graduated with modified diplomas and helps prepare them for independent living and employment.
“We’ll start doing some things, probably after spring vacation with students just to test the waters and do some different things,” Halliday said. “But we’ll really be more student connected, certainly in a bigger way, in the fall.”
Halliday said preparation work for the move is minimal from a facilities perspective.
“There’s really not much we have to do in terms of facilities,” she said. “We have a wall to paint and there will be some other furniture costs that we need to do.”
The building will need to be connected to the district’s technology network through a wireless bridge to either the technology shop or Clemens Primary School. The hardware will cost about $1,500 plus installation, though some electrical work is also needed.
“We have all of the essentials ordered and the low-voltage technician ready to come in and be able to do the work that we need,” Halliday said. “As soon as that gets taken care of, then we will move the student services office.”
PYAC purchased the one-third acre property and 1,152-square-foot building in May 2018 for $275,000, according to Benton County property records. The commercial building had previously housed Jillicious Desserts.
“We purchased it with the hope and intent to expand our facilities,” said Eddie Van Vlack, PYAC’s executive director. “Even when we purchased it, we were kind of bursting at the seams but we weren’t financially ready to start the project. But we knew that there was no other direction for us to grow except for that direction.”
Van Vlack said PYAC borrowed from its endowment and received generous donations to secure the property. Since the purchase, PYAC has rented the building to various tenants, including a candy maker, the Refuge and most recently the Benton County Schools Credit Union while its new building was under construction.
“That was an opportunity for us to get some steady income to put away to help get ready to actually start the capital campaign to expand our facilities,” Van Vlack said.
PYAC’s plans call for eventually building a gymnasium with bathrooms, a classroom and additional offices on the property. The 1992-built structure would either be moved or demolished to make way for the expansion.
The facility-use agreement with the school district includes a stipulation regarding building maintenance.
“If anything breaks or needs repair, there’s always a high likelihood that it may not get repaired or fixed,” Van Vlack said. “Because our plan is to either sell the whole building and have it moved away or demolish the building at some point whenever we can get some seed money to start our capital campaign.”
Van Vlack said the estimated timeline for PYAC’s expansion means the school district should be able to use the facility for two or three years.
Halliday said the arrangement provides the district flexibility while it considers longer-term space needs.
“We were looking at a decision based on if we were 18 months at a minimum in that space, what would the cost benefit analysis be to be able to do that?” Halliday said at the Jan. 8 School Board meeting. “Depending upon grants for Philomath Youth Activities Club will determine when they decide to raze that space and do something different.
“But it’s an opportunity for us to move forward for a period of time before we can look at what does that mean for us in a bonding space and things like that,” she said.