Panel doesn’t like members’ questions

Three members of the Columbus City Schools facilities task force voted Friday against narrowing the list of potential administrative sites to shutter after other members grew weary of their questions and voted to end debate.

The exchange took place near the end of the two-hour meeting at district headquarters Downtown, when member Nana Watson, the head of the Columbus NAACP, began asking why and how the district purchased the former ECOT headquarters on the South Side after having just gone through $20 million in budget cuts this past spring.

“It’s a mixed message,” Watson told acting Superintendent John Stanford. “Belt tightening; buy a building.”

Also voting against moving forward Friday were task force members Anahi Vinazza-Moore and Anne Stewart.

Columbus City Schools had the winning bid two weeks ago for the 138,000-squarefoot former ECOT headquarters. It paid $3.47 million, including fees. At the time of the purchase, the task force was being told that the district already had too much administrative space and needed to close some sites.

Stanford responded that buying the ECOT site makes it easier to determine what other sites to sell. The district has, for example, surmised that it could sell two North Side administrative sites, move employees into the ECOT building and pocket $2.68 million, not including annual utility savings.