STAUNTON, VA (Rocktown Now) — Staunton City Schools has purchased the former Guy C. Eavers Excavating Corp. property to consolidate departments and streamline operations.

The property is located at 816 Middlebrook Avenue in Staunton and will serve as a single operations facility for the school division’s transportation and maintenance departments as well as store cold and dry food.

The school division finalized the purchase of the property today for $1.6 million, acquiring 7.5 acres of land and approximately 325,000 square feet of building space.

The SCS Capital Improvement Plan includes a $30 million allocation for fiscal year 2029 to fully develop the facility, however a substantial investment is still needed to modernize the operations facility, which is currently unfunded.

Superintendent Garett Smith said, “The acquisition and future development of the new SCS Operations Center represents a significant advancement for Staunton City Schools. This project will ensure a more efficient and sustainable future for school division operations and position our schools for long-term efficiency and success.”

For decades, the school division’s Operations Department, which includes maintenance and transportation, has operated in disjointed facilities that the school division says were “inadequate, unsuitable, and intended to be temporary.”

SCS entered into an agreement in 2023 with Guy Eavers to lease his former excavating business property with an option to purchase. SCS transitioned the maintenance department and bus mechanic to the new site, which the division says “has already provided a much more suitable workspace for the school division’s skilled trades personnel who do carpentry, metalworking, plumbing, and electrical work, in addition to servicing school vehicles, buses, and equipment to maintain school property and grounds.”

The initial relocation has enabled the completion of crucial renovations to Shelburne Middle School, allowing for new Career and Technical Education (CTE) classrooms that prepare students for careers in STEM and technical fields. The expansion project at Shelburne could not move forward until maintenance vacated the basement.

In the coming months, SCS will do what it can to develop the new operations center, including electrical upgrades, the addition of a refrigerated space for the nutrition department, centralized office space, and a central repository for school mail and package deliveries. The school division’s tradespeople will do much of the work in-house.

Once the operations center is fully developed, it will serve as the hub for:

SCS Transportation:

  • Transportation management office
  • Central depot for buses, cars, vans, and trucks
  • Bus repair garage
  • Training site for staff

SCS Maintenance:

  • Storage for equipment, furniture, and materials

SCS Nutrition:

  • Cold and dry food storage
  • Commodity food preparation and distribution