Lackawanna College hopes to buy district Administration Building

Oct. 26—The Scranton School District Administration Building, a gothic landmark on North Washington Avenue for more than a century, could soon have a new owner.

The district's reconfiguration plan recommends options for the building, and Lackawanna College wants to buy it.

"We love the building, and we certainly want to include it as part of our campus," said Jill Murray, Ph.D., the college's president. "Whatever we can do together, we will figure out how to make it work."

The 1992 sale of the former Central High School to Lackawanna also gave the college the "right of first refusal" for any sale of the Administration Building at 425 N. Washington Ave.

In a 2017 letter to the district, which it made public with the reconfiguration plan, the college offers several options:

Purchasing the building, but the college would allow administrative offices to remain, in exchange for the district paying for the utilities for its portion of the building. Lackawanna would be willing to do that for as many as 10 years, or until a new home is found.

Exchanging the building for 5 acres of college-owned property near Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Leasing unused space to the college, with the district retaining ownership.

Lackawanna does not have specific plans for the building, Murray said.

Built in 1910, the building opened as the George Washington School. The district converted the three-story, 40,000-square-foot structure to administrative offices in 1966.

A 2019 report found the district spends more than $168,000 in utilities and staff costs to keep the building open and identified $3.6 million in needed repairs. The building needs a new heating and ventilation system and modifications to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. While the building has an elevator, someone must climb several steps to get to each floor after getting off the elevator.

The reconfiguration plan, presented to the board last week, also calls for the closing of John Adams, William Prescott and Charles Sumner elementary schools.

"My personal view is we cannot ask parents to move their children and to close schools without selling the Administration Building," said Director Ro Hume, chair of the operations committee.

The reconfiguration plan suggests moving some of the 45 employees based at the building to multiple schools. Offices could also move to the Sumner building, if the district decides not to relocate the Electric City Academy from its leased space in Green Ridge. The district must find a place to store records, or spend approximately $900,000 to digitize them.

"What we need to do as a district is shake up our thinking and look to the future and not the past," Hume said. "Just because we've always had a big building downtown, it doesn't mean we need one."

Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9133; @hofiushallTT on Twitter.