Feet from the entrance to the school district's Information Services Department is a desk, sheltered from gusts of cold outside air bursting in every time the doors open by nothing more than a stack of empty cardboard boxes.

Like many other borough entities housed in the Borough Administration Building, Jim White and his staff have been making due with a finite amount of space for years.

The issue is hardly a new one at 144 N. Binkley St., and has been recognized for at least 20 years.

Now it appears change may be in the wind.

On Monday the Kenai Peninsula Borough Board of Education held a work session prior to its evening meeting on relocating the school district's office from its current site to 245 N. Binkley. The site is referred to as the Mundell Building in reference to its current owners, Alice and Earl Mundell. The 1.18 acre property has an assessed value of $1.77 million.

District Superintendent Steve Atwater told the board Monday that since he took his position in July he's run into issues finding space for holding meetings, providing desk room for new staff and confidentiality issues where phone conversations involving legal and personnel issues "are being conducted in a semi-public setting."

Borough Mayor Dave Carey said on Tuesday there's more than just issues with space; safety and security are concerns as well.

Carey said that upgrading or renovating the borough building is likely to be too costly, but he's also concerned about purchasing the Mundell Building.

"Right now if I was going to make judgment from my standpoint only, without some real clear inefficiencies, I don't see that there's a real savings to the people of the peninsula," he said.

According to documentation provided at the board meeting, the Mundell Building will need about $220,000 in upgrades to bring it up to code. That doesn't necessarily take into account other costs such as interior renovations or improvements.

The relocation issue will next come up in a joint work session between the school board and the borough assembly at a date to be determined.

Dante Petri can be reached at dante.petri@peninsulaclarion.com.