WESTFIELD – The School Committee voted Monday night to approve a lease of office space at the Hampton Ponds Plaza for the district’ administration.
The board voted 6-0 to authorize Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and Superintendent Suzanne Scallion to sign a three year contract with GEM Trust of Wayland, Mass. The lease also has an option for two additional one-year extensions.
The lease will cost $2,750 a month, with a total of $99,000 if the full five year option package is exercised. The Hampton Ponds Plaza, on North Road, provides 6,000 square feet of space to accommodate 25 work spaces and a conference room.
Scallion said that several offices will be moved to other locations. The district’s three payroll clerks and the Volunteers in Public Schools (VIPS) personnel will be relocated at City Hall, while three food services employees will move to the Westfield Vocational High School.
The city had requested bids for between 5,000 and 6,000 square feet of office space and received three lease proposals: Hampton Ponds, the former Eaton’s Building on Elm Street, and the Westwood office complex on North Elm Street.
The Eaton’s Building was the smallest of the three, with only 3,600 square feet at a monthly lease of $3,037, The Elm Street site did not have parking for up to 30 vehicles, a major consideration in the lease review process.
The Westwood Building was the most expensive of the three at more than $7,000 a month for 5,600 square feet of space, but did have the required parking.
Monday night Knapik said the Westwood proposal did not comply with the request for proposal language and contained a number of bundled fees and services that were not requested in the bid.
“Westwood did not respond correctly to the RFP,” Knapik said. “Their lease was in the neighborhood of $8,000 a month. We could not decipher their proposal in fairness to the other respondents.”
Members of the School Committee questioned several issues, including the cost of utilities at the Hampton Ponds site. Heat and utilities are projected at $12,000 a year compared to the $22,500 for heat and utilities at the present Ashley Street building.
Other concerns raised during the discussion including access to the isolated location of the plaza, which is in the northeast corner of the city near the Holyoke line. Knapik said that the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) does serve the plaza with a bus route.
The board members raised the issue of approving a three-year lease, with two option years, without going through the City Council. Last year the board approved a three year bus contract with two options, a pact that was rejected by City Hall because the School Committee is limited to three year lease agreements.
Knapik said the lease was cleared through the city’s Law Department before it was presented to the School Committee for action because of that concern.
“We’re good,” Knapik said. “We worked this out with the Law Department. The five-years is allowed because it’s real estate.”
Knapik said that he is working on a five-year program to renovate the interior of city hall to create additional office and meeting space, adding that other city-owned space may become available in time frame of the five-year lease.
Committeewoman Cindy Sullivan said the central office location is being done for a number of reasons, including safety of district employees.
“We’re moving out of this building for several reasons,” Sullivan said, “not just because of the new school project. The roof of this building is leaking, the cost of utilities here are $22,5000 and this building is not ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.”
