RALEIGH -- The Wake County school board voted today to ask state permission to relocate its main administrative offices from North Raleigh to Cary.
Under the plan, the school system will lease additional office space at Crossroads Corporate Park, located off Dillard Drive near Crossroads shopping center in Cary. This would result in Wake consolidating several locations, including selling the main building now on 3600 Wake Forest Road in Raleigh.
School leaders say the plan could save $29 million over the next 20 years. The move could also bring as many as 470 new jobs to Cary.
Wake County commissioners had voted 6-1 on Monday to approve the deal. Only Commissioner Harold Webb objected, saying many county residents would find Cary too far to travel to attend to school business.
But school officials say Crossroads is closer to the geographic and population centers of Wake County than the Wake Forest Road building.
The plan now goes to the state Local Government Commission, which has final say on the issue. School administrators said the Local Government Commission will discuss the issue on July 6.
In addition to selling the Wake Forest Road property, the school system plans to sell buildings it owns on 2302 Noble Road and 4600 New Bern Avenue, both also in Raleigh.
The school system also plans to relocate employees from the Magnet Resource Center on the campus of Millbrook Elementary School in Raleigh.
The move, pending state approval, would take place in 2011.
