Ohio State Board of Education relocates headquarters to Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation building

The Ohio State Board of Education is relocating its headquarters to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation building. 

The state board started moving to the 12th floor of the William Green Building (30 West Spring St.) last week. The board’s former location (25 South Front St.) is about a half mile away and Tuesday’s monthly state board of education meeting was at the South Front location.

“I’m sure glad that we fought the fight that we fought to stay in the area,” State Superintendent Paul Craft said during Tuesday’s board of education meeting. “I think this is a net positive having the whole team on one floor as it has really helped bring us together in a really neat way.”

He said the hope is to have the May 13 state board of education meeting at the new location. Details about the cost of the move and when the move will be complete were not immediately available. 

During January’s state board of education meeting, Craft said there was a proposal by the Ohio Department of Administrative Services to move the state board to an office within the Ohio Department of Agriculture in Reynoldsburg — at least 15 miles away from downtown Columbus. 

But state board members did not like that idea and pushed back against it. 

“I think the loss we would get in terms of no longer being co-located with the other educational stakeholders in the state of Ohio, I can’t support from an operational perspective what the Department of Administrative Services would like to do with the team,” Craft said during January’s meeting. 

Moving offices comes after the state budget divided the former Ohio Department of Education into two separate agencies — the State Board of Education and the Department of Education and Workforce. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is staying at the 25 South Front St. location. 

Craft said the move has been going well so far.

“We’re still flowing back and forth between there (the William Green Building), the legislature and this building (25 South Front St.),” Craft said during Tuesday’s meeting.

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