If you’ve driven past the high school recently, you’ve probably noticed the construction right across the street. The 1.6 million dollar project is finally coming to a close, and the official South Gibson School Corporation Administrative Office is officially up and running.

Because South Gibson has had a central office in the past, some wonder why a new one was built. 

“The district for years has never had its own central office that they owned,” superintendent Dr. Stacey Humbaugh said. “We rented for years, and when that place burned down about 15 years ago, we moved out to the place we were renting before we built this one.”

The new building is also necessary space-wise. The corporation just simply outgrew the old office. 

“Schools require a lot of records to be kept on hand,” assistant superintendent Mr. Armstrong said.  “We have never had any place to keep records. We kept them at the K-8 schools or stacked up in boxes at the office, which took up a lot of space. In this new building, the entire basement can be used for storage, and we’ve never had that before. For example, our treasurer’s office isn’t that much different in size than what she had, but it doesn’t have 35 boxes stacked up in it.” 

With more space available, the storage problem of the old office is left in the past. 

“It’s like night and day for us,” Humbaugh said. “Our old office space was about 900 square feet. The new one is about 3500. We were at a point where we could not cram another body or desk in there.”

And she meant that quite literally. 

“There were boxes everywhere,” Armstrong said. “We were storing copy paper in the restroom.” 

With the storage issue fixed, everyone in the office can have plenty of room to work.

“Currently, the office holds the superintendent, assistant superintendent, treasurer, the administrative assistant who’s also the assistant treasurer, director of maintenance, and one of our data specialists,” Humbaugh said. “We each have our own offices. It’s very convenient.” 

The new office is also at a more accessible location, making it easier for everybody.

“The old office was in Fort Branch, but out a ways,” Humbaugh said. “To us, it was just a natural fit to have it right out here. We have to come out to the high school for a lot of meetings, so from our point of view, it’s a much easier and quicker commute to just head over here. And, we already own that land, and that saved some dollars.”

“It’s great for us,” Humbaugh said. “I’ve been here for 15 years, and we’ve never had a conference room. We finally have a room to hold all of our meetings.”

Now that South Gibson finally owns its’ own central office, it should be a permanent addition. 

“Our joke is that every office this school corporation has had has been temporary,” Armstrong said. “This should be the corporation office for years and years to come.”