The Richardson ISD board of trustees presented its initial long-term plan for a collection of properties the district purchased in 2021 during its Jan. 24 regular meeting.

These locations include properties at 616 Sherman St., 610 Sherman St. and 600 Sherman St. as well as three buildings at 401 Sherman St. The purchase of 616 Sherman St. was approved by the board in June, while the other three properties were approved for purchase in October.

In November, RISD engaged architecture firm Glenn Properties with board approval to finish out the design for a two-story office building at 616 Sherman St. The remaining properties have yet to receive final designs as tenants are still under lease.

Assistant Superintendent of Operations Sandra Hayes said the district has an agreement with tenants that once their leases are up, they will relocate so the district will not become long-term land property managers.

Interim Superintendent Tabitha Branum said she hopes the new properties will alleviate any storage concerns and open up space for other purposes.

“The new warehouse space is going to be really critical in terms of storage,” Branum said. “For example, our summer school, instructional materials and special education equipment [can be stored there]. That is going to free up a tremendous amount of space at places like our development center, where we can repurpose those offices and give space for training.”

Long term, Branum said the district has a vision that the teaching and learning department and the literacy and intervention department would each move its operations to the 616 Sherman St. building. However, she said each building will need extensive amounts of renovations at a “pretty substantial cost.”

“As we work through this year's budget and our multiyear forecast, we know we're going to need some time before we as a district decide that we're going to invest that amount of funds knowing that this was not built into the [2021] bond,” she said.

Branum said the complete project is likely to cost around $10 million based on the district’s estimates and she said RISD is not ready to recommend that level of commitment at this point.