By law and policy the district can only sell or lease real estate with authorization from the electorate at a public meeting. At last Wednesday's board meeting we unanimously approved three measures to be placed on the agenda of the October 5th annual meeting. The three measures seek authorization from the public to:
1) Sell or lease the Nichols property
2) Sell the two residential properties on Jerome street across from the high school
3) Lease the Maywood property
None of the proposals require we do anything with these properties, but the give the board the authority to take advantage of any opportunities that might come along.
I have said before that I think the district would be better off with the Nichols property working for the community rather than sitting (largely) idle. It is a prime piece of real estate in Monona and could be of significant value to the community. To my knowledge there are no plans or proposals in the works, but finding the right project for the property is likely to take some time. Public approval will let potential developers know we are serious, and makes it more likely that someone will invest the time and effort to develop a proposal.
The Jerome street properties are two houses adjacent to the District tennis courts across the street from the high school (these are actually in the city of Madison.) We've been talking about doing something to upgrade the tennis facility for years - and the neighbors would prefer something to these unoccupied residences. The houses are used by the district for storage, but they aren't really of much value to us - selling them could provide some revenue for much needed facilities maintenance and upgrades.
No one is interested in selling the Maywood property, I think we should keep it for potential future needs. But finding a paying occupant would be of financial benefit to the district, better maintain the building and address some of the community concerns associated with an unoccupied school. As I noted we have seen some interest from the Madison school district as a location for their Nuestro Mundo charter school. An arrangement could be substantially mutually beneficial.
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(photo ©2008 Bruce Fritz)
About Me
- Peter Sobol
- My family moved to Monona in 2003 and have been happily ensconsed in the Frost Woods Neighborhood ever since. I have 2 kids who graduated from Mg. I have been serving on the school board since April of 2007. We moved back to the Midwest in 2002 after spending 10 years in California, where I was a Department Director for Maxtor, a Fortune 500 company. In truth we left California largely because of the school situation - chronically underfunded schools did not offer the kind of programs or opportunities we wanted for our children. We picked Monona because our thorough research showed that this was a place we would really like to educate our kids. Our experience has taught us to value the quality schools we have here in Monona, and the importance of careful stewardship to maintain community support for those schools.
10 comments:
Is this an all or nothing type vote? I like one of the 3, but am not sure of the other 2. If we have to vote for all 3, my vote would be a no right now. If we can vote on each one by itself, I could address each on its own.
These will be 3 separate questions.
What reservations do you have?
Peter:
Does the district really need voter authorization to lease property? Aren't we leasing some space at Nichols to non-district tenants now?
Legally we can temporarily rent or lease property for fees not to exceed our actual costs 120.13(17) Beyond that requires approval at a meeting of the electorate 120.13(25)
I can't support the authorization of the potential sale of Nichols until the school board has a plan with what you would do with MG21. These aren't roaming nomads. They are our students in perhaps our most successful school, yet this idea is tossed out without a thought about this school. There was BIG STINK at the idea of moving Maywood kids, yet nobody seems concerned about this other group of kids.
It isn't fair to say that we haven't thought about MG21 when it comes to selling the Nichols property. A satisfactory solution for the administrative offices and MG21 would obviously have to be part of any plan.
I think holding authorization creates a chicken and egg problem: We are much less likely to be able to develop a plan with an outside interest until we can demonstrate a willingness to sell the property.
"What reservations do you have?"
I'm fine with leasing out property, and hope an agreement with Madison is reached.
I'm nervous about selling property. It seems the 2 million the district could get for Nichols is really low to me. The district would never get property in Monona for that price, nor could they build a school anywhere for that either.
I know there won't be a need in Monona for a school that size, but I think having Nichols could be a relief valve for the district as a whole (especially if Maywood is rented), even with the expenses of busing.
I don't know enough about the other properties. My concern right now is the "sale" word, similar to it in the Nichols issue.
Sorry about your chicken and egg dilemma, but no way are people going to give the board authorization to sell either of these buildings until the public knows a a few more things. There is a charter middle school situation brewing and there already is a charter school in Nichols. We also don't know the cost of relocating the district offices to where? I don't believe in all these cloak and dagger secrecy about needing room to negotiate with potential purchasers. It's not that difficult to get your ducks in a row facility-wise before going to the public to sell a building. Once that building is gone, it's gone. Give us a plan and we'll give you support!
sell maywood
Keep Nichols
Nichols is the bettter building
Maywood could be developed into a housing development.
Peter, these seem to be reasonable actions to be considered at the annual meeting. I hope people understand that this only authorizes the school board to move forward. It's not the final decision.
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