The Monroe County Community School Corporation board voted unanimously Tuesday to start the process to sell the former Herald-Times building, despite some board members expressing concerns.
The corporation purchased the Herald-Times property in 2022 for $2.9 million. At the time, the former superintendent said potential uses could include a family welcome center, a health clinic, meeting space or bus parking. The building is currently used for equipment storage and bus parking.
Of the eight acres of land available, six are usable; there are over 77,000 square feet. The Monroe County Graphical Information System listed the valuation of the property last April at just over $1.41 million.
In a corporation survey, selling the property was the most popular option at 40 percent. Eighteen percent favored using it for educational programs and services with a focus in STEM and 14 percent advocated for a sports facility, with a fieldhouse, an indoor track or a gym space.
The board first held a public hearing at the beginning of last night’s meeting to consider selling the building, but there was no public comment. In a discussion later in the meeting, various board members, including Ashley Pirani, said they had originally not wanted to sell the building. But given the corporation’s financial situation amid budget cuts, and how much it would cost to renovate the building, she thinks it makes more sense to sell.
Chief Financial Officer Matt Irwin speculates it would cost about $35 million to renovate the building.
“Understanding what it would take in order to do that and what would be potentially lost from our other facilities as a result, is not worth it to me,” Pirani said, “even though it saddens me because I see a lot of positive in having a space like that, because it could be a lot of things. It's a very large space. A lot of things could happen there. So, it saddens me to lean towards that side of feeling that we should probably sell it.”
Board member Ross Grimes expressed similar sentiments, saying that while he saw the benefit of using the building to consolidate services in one place, the money the corporation would have to invest to renovate it outweighs that benefit.
“The motivating factor is that the money that we would have to commit to make that building what it needs to become, is going to potentially severely limit our ability to do other things within the district over the next several years, and those buildings are more for the kids,” Grimes said. “So, when you weigh those two, investing that money there to make that building what it would need to be doesn’t make sense in my mind at this point.”
Board member April Hennessey agreed. She saw the potential the building had to be used for something else, like a health center or welcome center. But she acknowledged that the money the corporation would get from selling the building isn’t significant relative to the budget.
“In the scope of a district budget of this size, it's marginal,” Hennessey said. “What I will say is that fees of that sort, they don't go very far in the operations and working of the district. They just don't, there's no way to cut it. Like $2.9 million doesn't even cover our operating budget for a month in this district; it can't go very far.”
Board President Erin Cooperman was especially interested in using the building for STEM activities. She had even started to reach out to possible partners. But ultimately, she thinks it’s more important to prioritize improving schools when needed.
“I think it would be incredibly helpful to move our health services over to a more accessible building,” she said. “…There is a lot of interest in the community in partnering with us, but no one, unfortunately, was able to write a check for the amount of money that it would take to improve the property to make it usable for those purposes. And I think that process [collecting public input] was really valuable, and I hope that we won't lose sight of those ideas, those opportunities for partnership, those opportunities for growth, the areas in which our community is interested in seeing us grow.”
The corporation will hire a broker to sell the property.
The next board meeting is on Tuesday, April 28.
