VESD green-lights $2.15M purchase for district office

VICTORVILLE • The Victor Elementary School District Board of Trustees has decided to buy a $2.15 million property for a new district office.

The board Wednesday night green-lighted the purchase of a 30,000-square-foot building on Second Avenue next to Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville.

The funds to buy the building won’t come out of the district’s general fund or reserves. Instead, the district will use a pot of $7 million in redevelopment funds the school district has saved over the past decade. The RDA revenue must be spent on capital projects.

The new office will eventually replace the district’s current 12,000-square-foot building near 8th and C streets in Old Town Victorville, where the district has been based for some 26 years. The larger space will enable the district to consolidate departments now spread out over various buildings.

It will eventually cost another $5 million to do remodel the building, though district officials say they’ll wait to see what the state budget looks like in November before moving on the remodel.

If Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative fails, the VESD is poised to lose another $4 million or more than 5 percent of its $72 million budget.

Natasha Lindstrom may be reached at (760) 951-6232 or at NLindstrom@VVDailyPress.com.

Get complete stories every day with the "exactly as printed" Daily Press E-edition, only $5 per month! Click here to try it free for 7 days. To subscribe to the Daily Press in print or online, call (760) 241-7755, 1-800-553-2006 or click here.