Brunswick City Schools moves into new board of education office

BRUNSWICK — All departments have officially moved over to Brunswick Schools' new board of education office, which was built as part of the district's facilities master plan. Assistant Superintendent Kathy Verhest said the district began moving from the old board of education office inside Brunswick High School to the new building at 1049 Hadcock Road a little over a week ago. "It has been exciting, more exciting than I thought it was going to be," she said. "Change is hard for people, but everybody seems to be happy with their space. There's certain things that they're still missing like bookshelves and things like that, so we'll work through all of those items." Verhest said Director of Business Affairs Kent Morgan did a "great job" of organizing the move. "Everybody's been wonderful," she said. "We have definitely embodied our Journey of a Blue Devil competencies because they've been flexible, they have been adaptable and communication was key." Inside the building is a large room that can host board of education meetings and professional development opportunities. Verhest said the room is designed to be functional with tables that are easily rearrangeable and multiple televisions that allow different groups to present at once. "All the board microphones now go through a central system, so (BEAT adviser) John Wasylko does not have to set up individual booms for each of the board members," she said. "We also have the integration of wireless microphones so that if people are doing presentations, they can either walk or stand at the podium and present." The first board of education meeting inside the new space is expected in March, Verhest said. "The new building is beautiful, and that's impressive to me because the team really focused much more on function than form," board of education President Mary Weinhauer stated in a news release. "This building will serve the district's needs efficiently, and we were able to build it in a cost-effective way that allows us to direct more of our construction budget to the high school project. Student areas have always been the focus of the project, as they should be. This is exciting, but we are all way more excited about the new high school." The $102 million construction project, which also involves building a new Brunswick High School and maintenance facility, is funded by the state and a bond issue that passed in May 2023. To learn more about construction within the district, visit tinyurl.com/2xandkn4. "A comprehensive building assessment determined that constructing a new, appropriately sized board of education building would be more cost-effective than retrofitting the existing space after the high school demolition," Brunswick Schools stated in a news release. "The current board offices, which are attached to the high school, rely on that building's systems for power, plumbing and HVAC. Building a new space eliminated the significant costs of separating and upgrading these systems." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.