School district may sell building
By Bobbi Mlynar
Originally published 12:53 p.m., February 11, 2008
Updated 12:53 p.m., February 11, 2008
A property investment company wants to buy the Emporia Board of Education building.
Sale of the building is listed as an action item on the school board’s agenda for Wednesday. The meeting will start at 7 p.m. in the Mary Herbert Education Center, 1700 W. 7th Ave.
The building has not been offered for sale, Superintendent John Heim said, but interest apparently has been stirred by the knowledge that staff and equipment are outgrowing the current property.
“We hadn’t listed it or anything and we got a couple of offers actually in the last few weeks,” Heim said. “One fell through and this one didn’t.”
Deuce Holdings, represented by Brad Hase, has offered $228,860 for the building.
Heim speculated that Realtors thought the administrative staff would be a good fit for the National Teachers Hall of Fame building on the former College of Emporia campus. The NTHF site came on the muti-listing market a few weeks ago.
Heim believes that moving to the Mary Herbert School building would be a better option to house the administrative staff.
“We’re having an architect and builder look at it right now to see just what it would take,” he said. “It would take some remodeling to get us in over there.”
Because of that time constraint, the proposed contract to purchase the current building at 501 Merchant Street includes a provision for the district’s leasing of the building for up to a year.
“Part of the deal is that we needed to be able to lease this space from the buyer after the purchase, because we didn’t want to get in a big hurry,” Heim said.
The sale is listed as an action item on the agenda.
“They can reject it outright, they can accept it as-is, they can say they want more money,” Heim said.
Also during the meeting, Heim will report to the board about the potential impact the Tyson downsizing will have on the school district.
“Tyson has told us that they will look at their lists and let us compare lists of people who they know are leaving for another plant so we can compare that against our list of students,” he said. “That should be in the next few weeks.”
Teachers also will make notes during parent-teacher conferences this week about parents who provide information about whether they’re leaving or planning to stay in Emporia. Heim said that parents also are being encouraged to notify the district when they know children will be moving out of the area.
Enrollment changes will be difficult to pinpoint until Sept. 20, when the district turns in the official enrollment to the state.
Other agenda items include a curriculum report on new facilities at Emporia High School and consideration of procedures for designating accelerated and honors courses.
bobhornet (anonymous) says...
Another Emporia institution is abandoning a historic building--surprise, surprise. ESU's shameless decision to sell the Anderson Library is bad enough, but now this!
February 11, 2008 at 2:08 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
Take the expensive route please. Even with a big drop in students we must have more administrative space.
February 11, 2008 at 2:32 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justthinkin (anonymous) says...
OK - I'll take the other side.... if you have been in that building you would see that it is not an efficient work site - overcrowded, offices in spaces that should be hallways, etc. Also, don't look a gift horse (buyer) in the mouth.... The City did when Walgreens wanted the Fire Station 2 corner... and look where they are now.... repair, replace or move. It seems, if Mary Herbert has the space - and I've never been in it since it was a school - but, if it does, I think you can do a pretty good remodel for 1/4 million dollars.
February 11, 2008 at 3:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
rcakmon (anonymous) says...
A beautiful, historic building is not always functional. The outside is lovely, but the inside is run down and needs work. If there is a buyer, they should sell now.
February 11, 2008 at 5:44 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
gazette_reader (anonymous) says...
At least they didn't announce that they would have to build a big, expensive building. Putting the Mary Herbert building to use would be a good thing.
Does anyone know what Deuce Holdings is?
February 11, 2008 at 6:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
truelovecharlie (anonymous) says...
Have they ever considered that maybe they just have too many staff members? It seems nowadays they want to use 3 people to do what 1 person should be able to do; especially, with all the advancements in technology. I would encourage the citizens of Emporia to drop by the office and see just how many people are socializing instead of working. It is past time for all entities to tighten their belts and downsize through attrition. Give an honest days work for an honest days pay. Everywhere I look, I see too many people doing too little work.
February 11, 2008 at 9:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
admireed (anonymous) says...
truelove, you just do not like children! How dare you think of costs!
February 11, 2008 at 10:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
thatoneguy (anonymous) says...
Sounds like they're just going to waste the money to remodel Mary Herbert anyways. Why not just make due at Mary Herbert as-is since its pretty decent inside and out? No need in wasting money to make something look nice, and they're most likely already wasting money by consulting an "architect and builder". Does anyone know who this "architect and builder" is? Are they going to ask for bids? Or just pad someones pocket? This all sounds like a bad idea and a waste to me.
February 11, 2008 at 10:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
truelovecharlie (anonymous) says...
@admireed---You have no basis for your coment. I happen to love children and am a father to 4. I merely pointed out that many times places are over-staffed. It may be the case here even more so in light of the uncertain enrollment in the district. I don't know of any entity that could not tighten their ship and run more efficiently. That is the only point I was making. I have problem with them spending the money, IF, it is truly necessary. If the building they are in is in such bad disrepair, why was it allowed to get to that point?
February 11, 2008 at 11:03 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
77flint (anonymous) says...
@charlie he was joking with you.
February 12, 2008 at 8:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
truelovecharlie (anonymous) says...
Thank you 77Flint. Some of the people who comment on here appear to have a vicious streak, so you never know. I stand by my comment and believe there is a significant amount of validity to it.
February 12, 2008 at 8:57 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
momus (anonymous) says...
Does anyone know what the proposed buyer would use the school board building for? Just curious. If the building is as disfunctional as everyone says, I'm wondering what the potential uses are that maintain the buildings historic character.
February 12, 2008 at 9:32 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bjohn (anonymous) says...
If the school district loses as many students as they think they might, then there is an easy solution. One of the elemetary schools could be closed and those students bused to the remaining schools. They could use the newly empited elemetary school as offices, like Mary Herbert. I'm specifically thinking of them closing William Allen White and moving most of those kids to the new Riverside school. This is only a viable plan if the district loses enough students though.
February 12, 2008 at 11:51 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Losing students due to a major lay off in town, economy is headed down the pipes, taxes are thru the roof, gee who could have guessed we might need a new administrative building at the same time. Be sure to hire several consultants to go with your architects and builders(putting the cart before the horse arent we?)
February 13, 2008 at 6:14 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
77flint (anonymous) says...
neighbor, you just can't stop yourself from spewing garbage from your mouth.
February 13, 2008 at 8:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
77flint (anonymous) says...
I HOPE THE BIG BAD PAPER DOESN'T REMOVE MY POST.
February 13, 2008 at 10:06 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
poacher (anonymous) says...
What a deal for USD253! Have your cake and eat it too! Receiving an outstanding cash offer on your somewhat “White Elephant” property. Having your cash in hand and retaining for peanuts the use of the property for up to a year in order to orderly consolidate, relocate and further sort through the student number dilemma as the result of the Tyson Decision. And guess what fellow tax payers, for a change we are putting a property back on the tax roll to help all of us carry our local tax load. I commend the foresite and the guts of our board to respond so promptly and so wisely to the situation. We now know that neither Helmer nor Crouch should ever be retained as our County’s Emergency Management Coordinator. If finally feels good to be a taxpayer.
February 14, 2008 at 6:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
momus (anonymous) says...
Yes, who would actually want us to think through a situation? Helmer and Crouch are trying to look out for everyone's best interests. Neither said "no" to the deal. But they are right, when someones offers to buy something that wasn't listed for sale, but they can only do it "right NOW", you might want to think things through. If the deal is good right now, it should be good in a month or two. That should give the school district time to plan for an effective, efficient (read, not so darn expensive) move. I'll take logical thought over knee jerk reactions any day!
February 14, 2008 at 7:15 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
$228K for a large building in a quality downtown location sounds awfully cheap to me. Houses sell for that amount. I would have to see how bad the investors really wanted the property, they would have to make the "cake" much sweeter.
February 15, 2008 at 6:13 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Hillbilly (anonymous) says...
truelovecharlie, I was even in my bank the other day and was thinking that they had to many people doing nothing also, seem like it happens everywhere!
February 15, 2008 at 7:49 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )