Monroe School District signs lease for new headquarters

Published 1:30 am Tuesday, February 18, 2020

MONROE — School district leaders are on the move.

Administrators signed a 20-year lease Jan. 29 for a former medical office building across from the EvergreenHealth Monroe campus. With renovations under way soon, the new headquarters could open by the end of the summer.

The Monroe School District has operated out of a 104-year-old former schoolhouse for the past 44 years.

“In our current building, the largest space is inadequate to hold large meetings and professional development, departments are chopped up and housed where space is available instead of in structured work teams, and parking is inadequate for day to day needs,” district spokeswoman Tamara Kratche said in an email.

First considered in September, the school board voted 4-0 to approve the lease in early December.

Now, the building formerly known as the Central Grade School will be put up for sale, though there’s no timeline for when it will hit the market, Kratche said. The schoolhouse was built in 1916 by the Howard S. Wright Company, the same firm responsible for the Space Needle and Monorail.

The Monroe Historical Society wants to see the building maintained, member Tammi Kinney said.

“We would love for someone to buy it and restore it to its historic integrity,” she said.

Ben Webb, who lives near Monroe, wants to buy the building and turn it into an indoor community market.

He met with the historical society earlier this year. He wants to sit down next with residents, city leaders and the school board to discuss preserving the building, he said.

“It’s not feasible to buy it, renovate it and make money off of it as it is,” he said. “In my mind, anyone who buys the building is going to tear it down.”

Webb envisions stalls for butchers, produce and homemade goods, he said. The first floor could serve as a cafeteria area, as it did decades ago.

“I think it would help anchor the main street and provide reason for people to get out of their cars and walk around a little bit,” he said.

The new headquarters will cost about $57,000 each month, per the agreement. For the first seven years of the lease, the district can buy the building for $11 million. From year seven to 10, the price is $10.5 million.

With 32,000 square feet of space, the new building is bigger than the district needs.

“We will evaluate all district programs to determine if moving to a new location would benefit any of them,” Kratche said. “No final decisions have been made at this point.”

Joey Thompson: 425-339-3449; jthompson@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @byjoeythompson.