Manassas schools push to buy city’s largest office building comes with threat to control budget

The Manassas City School Board is asking the city council to allow it to spend nearly $11 million on the largest office building in Manassas.

With the purchase, the city council threatens the school board to categorically fund the school division in future years if it doesn’t start constructing a new Jennie Dean Elementary School before July 2025. Historically, the city council — which funds the school system due to the school board’s lack of taxing authority — has given a lump sum of cash to pay for school operations, no questions asked.

A new Jennie Dean Elementary School has been a sticking point between the school board and city council, which voted to raise taxes to fund the new school put on the back burner. In contrast, the school division focused on other projects like the purchase of 8700 Centreville Road.

This year, the city council transferred $139 million to the school division, about 55 cents on every dollar the city collected. The school transfer is the largest allocation in the budget.

Last year, the city council entertained purchasing 8700 Centreville Road, which houses Apple Federal Credit Union and several other businesses. The public school division leases a portion of the building to house its administrative office.

The city council held public hearings on the matter in September and October. Few people spoke during the public hearing.

The school said it will use the 56,000-square-foot building that opened 24 years ago, to house its central office, and use the additional space for future programs at the school division headquarters, like career and technical education and daycare, explained school board members.

On Monday, the city council’s proposal would require the schools to house the city’s social services offices and a customer service center for the city’s utility office, where residents may pay utility bills. A new customer service center is now housed in a former DMV at Godwin Drive, and Gateway Boulevard does not have a window for utility payments.

The school board ditched a plan to occupy the old police station on Wellington Road — a structure the city already owns — and complained the building is too small for its needs. It’s unclear what will happen to the old police station now that the department is relocated to a new public safety center on Grant Avenue.

The school division would become a landlord for the existing businesses inside the building until the business leases expire. In November 2023, PLN was there when city council members met the school board with a lukewarm reception when it pitched the idea.

You can read more about the potential transaction here in city documents. The Manassas City Council will take up the matter on its Monday, February 27 meeting, starting at 5:30 p.m. at Jennie Dean Elementary School, 9601 Prince William Street in Manassas.

More than 7,500 students attend Manassas City Public Schools.