A Closer Look at the Big Plans for La Grange’s Old Bealls Building
In a space where locals used to shop for jeans and shoes, school officials from all over the region will now come to learn to do their job better.
The old Bealls building at 215 Ellinger Rd. in La Grange has been purchased by Region 13 Education Service Center, and is expected to open this summer as the organization’s eastern satellite campus.
Region 13 is one of twenty service centers spread across the state. Region 13 spreads from Fayette County schools in the east to Llano and Harper in the west, and suburban San Antonio in the south.
“We conduct board training, cafeteria worker training, bus driver training and everything in between,” said Rich Elsasser, the executive director of Region 13, who himself used to live in La Grange and is a former superintendent at Fayetteville ISD.
Region 13’s headquarters are in Austin, and in a normal (pre-COVID) year he said about 90,000 people come through their doors for training sessions – thousands of which may now be headed to La Grange.
COVID changed that as a lot of training went online – to thedetriment of knowledge learned.
“Face-to-face is always more valuable,” Elsasser said.
But Elsasser has also found that getting to an in-person training in Austin was an increasing impediment for folks
“Nobody liked having to come into Austin. It was 1.5 hours (one way) from our eastern schools and 2.5 hours from the west side of our region ... COVID caused us to re-think our model,” Elsasser said. “We thought, what if we worked on satellite campuses.”
The La Grange Bealls is one of three new Region 13 campuses, the others are in San Marcos and Marble Falls.
“The goal is for schools to not have to travel more than 45 minutes for training,” Elsasser said.
Former La Grange superintendent Erwin Sladek (a Region 13 board member) told Elsasser the Bealls was back up for sale after another businesses’ deal for the building fell through.
“Being from out there, I knew what I was getting into and it’s been the ideal situation,” Elsasser said. “It’s all happened really fast.”
At 24,000 square feet, the Bealls building in La Grange is the largest of the three new satellite campuses purchased by Region 13. Its massive old storeroom area will be complimented by movable walls to create “flexible space” for training, Elsasser said.
The facility will also be available for rental for outside educational purposes, he said.
“There’s a big piece of my heart that’s still in La Grange,” Elsasser said. “This is the perfect location and it’s something the whole community can benefit from. It’s a win-win.”