After several months of using temporary office space around the city, officials from the Petal School District’s central office system are completing the move to their new home this week, with different parts of the staff staggering that transition to the former McDonald’s building on East Central Avenue.
District superintendent Matt Dillon said he, along with the human resources department and the academic team, has already moved to the new location. The business department will follow later this week; meanwhile, the technology department will move to the Red Lab adjacent to Petal Middle School.
“So this the (former McDonald’s building) will be the new central office hub moving forward,” Dillon said. “First of all, just the aesthetics of what it looks like on the outside is making it more appealing in the downtown area here in Petal, so I’m glad we’re able to help with the curb appeal here.
“Then on the inside, we’re very pleased with the outcome of the work, through our architect and through our construction company. They did a really good job of providing 14 offices and one conference room, so we’re very pleased with our office space, and we will have an open house at some point to show to the public what we’ve been able to do with this space.”
The former McDonald’s building – which sat vacant for several years, since McDonald’s moved to its current location on the Evelyn Gandy Parkway – was donated to the school district by its former owner, Dr. David McKellar. McKellar had previously offered to donate the building to the City of Petal, but that proposal was denied by the Petal Board of Aldermen in November 2019, when board members – along with former Mayor Hal Marx – suggested the city would have no use for the building.
School officials had originally planned to use the facility for after-school activities, then opted to explore selling the building instead. However, those plans switched gears because of issues with the adjacent former central office building, which is undergoing repairs from significant moisture damage.
Because of that, the business office moved to the Red Lab, and the rest of Dillon’s administration relocated to a previously unutilized space at Petal-Harvey Baptist Church on South Main Street.
“We’re very fortunate this building was donated and that we were able to use some one-time dollars that we received from the state into this building so that we could get it up to par and make it into office spaces,” Dillon said. “It’s really nice.”
Rehabilitation of the former central office building, meanwhile, is expected to take more than a year. Once that project is complete, the district will move its special education team and the child nutrition department – which are currently located across the street from Petal Harvey Baptist Church – into the rehabbed building.
Meetings of the district’s board of trustees will be held at the Red Lab until the former central office is finished, at which point the meetings will resume at that location.
“It’s a major rehab project (for the former central office), and first we have to bid it out,” Dillon said. “You’re talking about it being a historic landmark, so you have to follow certain rules, and we have a lot of work to do on the inside and the exterior.
“There’s some drainage issues, the HVAC and the roof, flooring, and the list goes on. So it’s going to be a pretty extensive rehab, and it’s going to take quite some time to get us to that point.”
