Karns City residents raise concern about books, items left behind in elementary school
KARNS CITY — Residents in the Karns City Area School district voiced their discontent with the school board’s handling of the former Sugarcreek Elementary school building on Monday and received a full statement in return.
The community’s concern stems from the items that were left behind in the building for the contractors to salvage before demolishing. Pieces included in this category range from books to projector boards.
“Many families donated books in memory of loved ones,” resident Zach Scherer said, “in fact, I visited the school last week, and the first 15 books I picked up had been left in people’s loved one’s names, and they were just left in the school.”
Residents raised concern about the items that they felt could have been donated or auctioned off to bring in more money for the district during the time the building has been vacant.
Kristi St. Onge, a five year resident, says the school could have saved money by hiring an auction house or even setting up a garage sale.
The board explained their decision in allowing the contractors to salvage equipment by comparing the bids from companies who wanted salvage rights to those companies that didn’t want to salvage anything.
Josh Price, the president of the school board said the two lowest bids were $243,000 and $248,000 and those were for the companies that wanted salvage rights. The bid after those, he said, was $495,000 without salvage rights.
“So we saved the district roughly $200,000 by keeping that stuff in there and allowing them to salvage it,” Price said.
Price finished the board’s statement on the matter by saying they know they made a mistake. He said they should have made an announcement to the district to offer up books to those who needed them.
He noted that the playground equipment was donated and the fire department was allowed to run lines for practice in the building. He also mentioned that the district had helped anyone who did want anything from the building retrieve items.
“We dropped the ball; we should have done better, and for that I apologize.” Price said.
The next school board meeting will be April 13, 2026.
