Looking Back: Growing pains 

Just 18 years ago, with staff bursting at the seams of CSBA’s midtown Sacramento office, workers broke ground on the California School Boards Association’s spacious new headquarters building on Beacon Boulevard in West Sacramento. On Dec. 1, 1988, CSBA Executive Director Davis W. Campbell signed off on the 15,154 square-foot building.

Hundreds of school board members and state and local dignitaries boarded buses to visit the new headquarters after the 1989 Forecast conference in Sacramento. CSBA President Bill Ingram welcomed the visitors and unveiled the Founder’s Corner plaque listing the 250 school districts that contributed some $335,000 toward the $1.5 million facility. Immediate Past President Mary Anne Houx then christened the building with a bottle of champagne, which finally broke after several determined tries, recalls 20-year staffer Cindy Warfe.

Designed to give CSBA’s then 50-person staff plenty of room to grow, the unique triangular building with its interior garden courtyard has served the association’s needs admirably. But today, with more than 100 employees at four locations, CSBA is again looking for a space that will accommodate its needs for the foreseeable future.