Virginia Commonwealth University has gained a boost for its plan to take over the historic and vacant Moore Street School to expand the day care operation that its School of Education operates on the Monroe Park Campus.

The Richmond School Board voted 8-1 Monday night to start the process of enabling VCU to obtain the building.

VCU wants to convert the 1887 building into a day care for 148 children, with 100 spaces reserved for pre-school children of faculty, students and staff and up to 48 subsidized spaces available for young- sters from Gilpin Court and the Carver neighborhood.

Without mentioning VCU, the School Board endorsed procedural steps that are required if VCU is to obtain the building, a rear annex to the more modern Carver Elementary School in the 1100 block of West Leigh Street.

Among other things, the board reaffirmed its decision to give up its rights to the building and directed schools Superintendent Jason Kamras to file paperwork with the Richmond Circuit Court that would transfer the property to city control.

When Moore Street School was constructed in the post-Reconstruction era, the building was the first public school the city built for the education of black children, according to historical documents.

The board closed the building in 2000 and voted to make it surplus property 10 years ago, but kept control of the property by never filing the required paperwork with the court.

Meanwhile, Carver Elementary continued until recently to use some rooms in the deteriorating structure for offices and for indoor play space for students.

Under a memorandum of agreement between VCU and Richmond Public Schools, the hand over of the building to City Hall would allow the city to transfer the building to VCU for $1. That would clear the way for the university to begin renovations.

However, the School Board, having giving up all control of the building, could not offer assurances that the city would do that.

The city, instead, could issue a request for proposals to see whether other parties would be interested in the building and be willing to pay more. Any funds the city might derive from a sale or lease of the building would have to be returned to the school system.

The lone vote in opposition came from School Board member Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, who expressed concern that the board would not receive any payment for the building.

She also expressed concern that the school system’s memorandum with VCU was too imprecise in its details. For example, she said it was not clear that VCU would be required to undertake construction work in a way that would avoid interference with Carver’s educational programs.

She also said there was no detail on Carver’s parking needs to ensure that spaces earmarked for the day care are not needed for staff, faculty and visitors to the public school.

VCU plans to spend millions of dollars to renovate the building and has estimated that the subsidies it would provide to enroll children from the community could run $500,000 or more per year.