Wentzville School Transportation Facility is State-of-the-Art

"We built this facility for the Wentzville that we will become, not the Wentzville we are today," said Transportation Director Jennifer Simpson as she led Patch on a tour of the 's new transportation facility.

"We toured the state, we looked at all the big districts. We didn't want to come back 5, 10 years from now and say, okay, we need to do something different."

Wentzville School District's new transportation facility, which occupies 15 acres on Highway A just west of , should be complete next week.

Previously, the facility was divided between the Quail Ridge Educational Center campus and space behind . The was in desperate need of the space.

"They've already renovated, and they're up and running," said Simpson.

"Everything will be centralized here. It will be nice having everything in one place. We can't wait. This is my ninth school year, and we haven't been in one place since my first year here," Simpson said.

Offices began moving to the new building the first week of August. Besides offices for transportation department staff—which include a routing office and a dispatch office with four computer stations—the facility also has a reception area and a room for training.

Another improvement is a common room where the drivers and staff can relax, eat or use a computer. The room features vending machines, kitchen equipment and mail boxes.

Simpson is especially excited about the facility's shop area.

"We do all the repairs except for body work," Simpson said, and mentioned that the district was waiting for the shop to be finished before holding an open house for the facility. "This is a really nice shop."