At the former site of a neighborhood grocery store, officials now are plotting the course for students and teachers at Lindbergh Schools.

The district this month moved its administrative offices from the high school campus at 5000 Lindbergh Blvd. to a new $6.5 million, 24,000-square-foot central office at 9350 Sappington Road.

A plaque inside the entrance of the building — donated by the Sappington-Concord Historical Society — declares that it's on the site of the old Johnny's Market at the northeast corner of Gravois Road and Sappington.

"It's a wonderful facility," said Tony Lake, who was recently named to be district superintendent, starting July 1.

He said current Superintendent Jim Simpson, Executive Director of Planning and Development Karl Guyer and the whole district team "have built something that the whole community can be really proud."

The administration building will house about 50 people from 12 departments. They include administrators and workers in human relations, business, technology, communications and instruction.

A ribbon cutting and open house will be held in about a month.

The new facility takes the place of a separate administration building on the west end of the high school campus and an adjacent area in a far western wing of the high school. That area had about the same amount of space as the new central office.

With the offices gone, there is more space available for students.

Following the move, the Lindbergh Board of Education voted at its meeting on Jan. 9 to award Kalicak Construction a $490,926 contract to convert the former central office area back to classroom use.

When the renovations are finished, there will be more than 16 new classrooms and meeting areas. The move of central office workers means there will be more than 50 additional parking spaces on the Lindbergh High School campus to handle expected growth.

The money for the high school renovations came from proceeds from the Prop G bond issue approved by district voters in April 2014.

The district used reserves to buy the former Johnny's Market property for $1,663,603 in January 2016. In September 2016, it awarded a $6,561,000 contract to Wachter, Inc. to build the new central office.

To finance the central office construction, the school board approved the sale of $7.06 million in certificates of participation to First Banker's Banc Securities. That method is the preferred finance method for small projects. It didn't require voter approval.

The move will buy time to ease an expected sharp increase in enrollment at the high school, said Beth Johnston, district communications director.

Enrollment from kindergarten through high school increased by 1,243 in the past 10 years. The total jumped from 5,607 a decade ago to 6,850 this year. While much of the boost has been at the elementary level, it's starting to move into high school.

One factor that has helped ease the increase in resident enrollment has been the decrease in the number of student from the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corporation (desegregation) program, Johnston said.

"Now that the VICC program has ended, we are feeling the full impact of the increased resident enrollment growth," Johnston said. "The projected enrollment increase through 2021 is 901 additional students."

The current high school enrollment is 2,112. Johnston didn't have specific enrollment projections at that level.