School Board designates Central Building as surplus

The historic Central Building, originally built to serve as the community’s high school, and which until last year was part of a two-building middle school complex, has been declared surplus property.

The Baker School Board made the declaration Tuesday night to allow district managers to begin the process of selling the building.

The board closed the Central School last spring when the district needed to cut expenses to balance its budget. Baker Middle School students had continued to use the 93-year-old building’s wood shop this year with the hope of moving the program to the Helen M. Stack building.

Faced with making more reductions in 2010-11, the district has eliminated the part-time wood shop teacher’s position from the middle school budget for next year. The position had been filled by Dave Frazey, who split his day between the high school and the middle school. Frazey will return to the high school full time next year.

Vaughan said there will be no extra space at the school next year when an influx of 45 additional students is expected to fill the HMS building to capacity. She estimated the cost of building a wood shop for students at between $60,000 and $100,000.

Vaughan said she would prefer not to eliminate the program, which she re-established when she came to the middle school as principal seven years ago.

“Middle school students need hands-on electives where they’re getting up and moving,” she said. “It’s great for at-risk kids, but good for all the population,” she said.

Losing the wood shop program also will jeopardize grant funding the district has received to help pay for a remodeling project in south Baker City begun by the BMS Builders Club.

On recommendation of Doug Dalton, the district’s chief financial officer, the board agreed to schedule a future meeting to continue discussion of alternatives for the BMS wood shop program and all other capital projects needs.

“If wood shop is number one, we do that first,” he said. “If it’s number 10, it’s number 10.”

Dalton said it is costing the district $30,000 to $40,000 to maintain the closed building.