Bids come in below appraisal
BUTLER TWP — The Butler School District opened two bids Friday for two of its recently closed elementary schools, but neither of the bids met the lowest appraised values.
The Center for Community Resources bid $150,000 for Broad Street Elementary. Robert Oesterling bid $100,000 for either Clearfield or Oakland elementary schools.
“Neither of the bids meets the lowest appraised values of the schools,” said Bill Halle, school board member.
Information about school building appraisals that were done over the summer will be released next week.
District solicitor Tom King said in a closed-bid process, the bids should meet at least the minimum appraised value to be considered for approval.
“The statute requires two appraisals, and the bids, to be acceptable to the court, would have to be at least equal to the appraised values,” King said.
The school board will meet in executive session Monday to discuss the bids, and a decision will likely be made by Monday night’s board meeting.
Oesterling owns two businesses. He runs Oesterling Concrete in Butler and Kingdom Vapor Wholesale, a website selling personal vaporizers and electronic cigarettes, out of Clarion. He said he intended to use one of the school buildings as a warehouse for the wholesale cigarettes website.
“It’s a booming business, and we’re growing fast. We’ve outgrown our business twice in the last two years,” he said.
He said his products are shipped all around the country, and the 4,000-square-foot warehouse he has in Clarion now isn’t large enough.
Meanwhile, the Center for Community Resources sees Broad Street Elementary as a great place for a community center and potential hub for a day care, Head Start programs and other nonprofit centers.
“We don’t have anything defined 100 percent, but we have had conversations over the past months,” said Mike Robb, executive director.
He said, “We want to maintain that good community presence. … It’s a great community. It’s a great building. We’re very excited if this does come to fruition.”
The agency’s mission statement says its goal is to coordinate supportive services for individuals and families seeking information and referral for mental health, intellectual disabilities, substance abuse and other human service needs.
The district closed five schools in June — Broad Street, Clearfield, Meridian, Center Avenue and Oakland.
The district is interested in selling four of those. Center Avenue has been renovated into a special needs and alternative school.
The schools were closed under a consolidation plan to curb costs and to deal with declining student enrollment.
Halle and school board candidate Leland Clark filed a lawsuit against the school district last month in an effort to stop the sale of any of the four closed schools before four new board members are elected on Nov. 3 and seated in early December.
County Judge S. Michael Yeager ruled earlier this month he would take no action unless the school board approved of a sale.
