BETHEL — The new central offices for SAD 44 may be a bit smaller than at the previous location, but they are brighter, more modern, and more convenient, Superintendent David Murphy said.

Much of the summer has been devoted to the relocation of the district’s offices from the former Ethel Bisbee School in downtown Bethel to the second floor of the Norway Savings Bank building located at 1 Parkway.

“Norway made us a very reasonable offer,” Murphy said from his office in a corner section of the suite that looks out over the Bethel Parkway.

Central offices had been located at the former Ethel Bisbee School for seven years, along with the District Exchange and a food pantry.

But when SAD 44 was developing its budget for 2011-12, cost-cutting was needed.

Murphy said the five-year lease agreement will cost about $900 a month, including utilities, which is less than half the cost of remaining in the Bisbee building.

Several central office employee positions had been eliminated over the years, so only three people, including Murphy, staff the office suite.

Along with several offices, the suite has a conference room and a storage room.

The size of the space is about a quarter to a third of what central office staff had at Bisbee, Murphy said.

The District Exchange, which has been located in the basement of the Bisbee School, has been allowed to stay there until the end of August. The food pantry is now located at the Church of the Nazarene on Church Street.

Cathy Newell, head of the District Exchange, said the search is still on for a new site for the Exchange that provides clothing and some household items for people who need them.

Exchange board members thought they had a new site earlier in the summer, but that fell through. Now, she said the board is looking for another site. If that one, which she didn’t want to identify, falls through, then the hundreds of items available at the District Exchange will be donated to local nonprofits. She said she would know whether or not that site will be available sometime next week.

Murphy said no future plans for the former Bisbee School are in the offing now. It will be kept accessible, but won’t be heated. It will likely serve as a storage space for the district until a decision is made on what to do with it.

If the district should decide to stop using the building, its ownership would revert to the town of Bethel because it was owned by the town when SAD 44 was formed.

Murphy said the school board’s Facilities Committee will likely begin discussing the former school’s future very soon.