NAMPA, Idaho — The Nampa School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the location of a new transportation depot at the corner of Amity Road and Railroad Street.
- With two weeks until the start of the school year, Nampa families are getting ready for a lot of change.
- "It is at the former Armor Meat Packing plant, near the corner of Railroad and Amity," the District's community and media relations specialist Matt Sizemore told me.
- The location will also allow the District to take advantage of state reimbursement programs.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
With two weeks until the start of the school year, Nampa families are getting ready for a lot of change. Four-day school weeks, a new trimester schedule, school closures amid declining enrollment, and some school properties being repurposed.
RELATED: School closures, schedule changes lead to millions in savings in Nampa.
Among the latest to add to the list: the decision on location for the district's new transportation hub.
"We are incredibly excited about what our board just approved. It is at the former Armor Meat Packing plant, near the corner of Railroad and Amity," the District's community and media relations specialist Matt Sizemore told me.
That's a change from earlier this summer, when I spoke with the Nampa School District about a previous plan to use the old Union High School for transportation offices and a permanent parking place for its fleet of new buses.
The official site — an area already zoned as light industrial and, perhaps most importantly, away from a neighborhood.
"What changed from the last time we spoke where Union was the ideal spot to now Amity and Railroad is?" I asked Sizemore.
"The biggest thing is we listened to the community. Obviously, we do not want to be a nuisance to them or any of our neighbors and we took the feedback knowing there would be several busses in their neighborhood," Sizemore said. "With that we started doing our due diligence for other sites and when we found this one everything seemed to just fit. In the end we really got lucky in that sense."
The lease for the land sees the District paying $16,000 per month with a first payment of $32,000. Similar to when you pay first and last months' rent in an apartment complex.
Transitioning the old Union High School would have cost at minimum $200,000. By leasing the site on Amity, the District will be able to take advantage of state reimbursements.
"In terms of owning our own bus depot, the biggest thing is going to be a lot more state reimbursements by several things including be able to control our own routes, having our own transportation department, using our own software. There's going to be plenty of things that are repaid by the state so in the end we are going to save," says Sizemore
