VERGENNES — Addison Northwest Supervisory Union employees were packing boxes and lugging office furniture and equipment from Green Street up Main Street late last week as they were completing the district’s long-awaited move to new office space in the Kennedy Brothers building.
ANwSU officials had signed a lease to move from the Cornerstone Building on Green Street in June 2014, a move that will save the district $11,800 a year for comparably sized space in Kennedy Brothers.
“The next five years will be a cost savings,” said ANwSU Superintendent JoAn Canning.
Canning added the new space, which should be operational this Monday if all went well, is also better set up for the district’s purposes.
“The layout of the office is more conducive for collaboration to happen among the departments, such as the business office, the superintendent’s office and human resources and special education. We’re aligned better. The space is better, and we’ll be better organized for efficiencies to happen,” she said.
All that didn’t make the move easy, however.
“Think about a family that has lived in a house for many, many years and doesn’t throw things out,” Canning said. “There’s dust. There’s old pictures. There’s stuff you don’t need any more. So trying to weed out and think about the future is difficult while you’re trying to get your job done. So it’s been a challenge.”