Fate of Howard Middle School remains in limbo

Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Notwithstanding expressed interest in acquiring the property from two community groups, an actual money offer on the table, and the fact that the district is in dire financial straits, the fate of the former Howard Middle School (HMS) remains in limbo.
On Monday evening, Feb. 11, the issue came up again before the School Board, triggered by an updated offer from True Wisdom New Hope Ministries International Development Center Inc., a Tallahassee-based nonprofit incorporated in 2002.
The updated proposal shows True Wisdom offering $350,000 for the purchase of the property, with two payments of $30,000 each in May and November 2019, respectively. The organization proposes thereafter to pay an annual principal payment of $25,000 for eight years until the agreement is satisfied.
Superintendent Marianne Arbulu noted that given the district's financial constraints, it made sense to pursue the sale of the property or at least explore the offer.
“You're all aware that we didn't get Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) funding for repair of the air conditioning at the auditorium,” Arbulu said. “That's a major expense. In fact, we have no capital outlay money. The prudent thing to do is to bid out the building and put the money into capital outlay. We need to move forward and go on the open market on this.”
The School Board's response was to take issue with Arbulu for putting the updated offer on the agenda absent confering with the board.
“It would have been nice if you had contacted each of the board members before putting this on the agenda,” Chairwoman Shirley Washington said.
“I don't think you're being fair to the board or the families.”
Washington was referring to the other two groups that have expressed an interest in acquiring the property. One is the family that supposedly donated the property, or portions of the property, to the school district for construction of HMS. The problem is that documentation or a deed to that effect has yet to be produced . Or better said, the paperwork produced so far lacked a reversionary clause, which provides that upon occurrence of a prescribed event, such as the closing of the school, ownership of the property reverts to the original owner.
“The one deed presented by the family didn't show that it was ever recorded and it didn't have a reversionary clause,” School Board Attorney Tom Reeves told the board, adding that the board couldn't just return the property, absent the appropriate documentation.
“You have to dispose of the property in the best interest of the school district,” Reeves went on to say. “So, you can't just give it up. You can, however, bid it out, that's an option.”
School Board Member Charles Boland proposed the latter option.
“The bidding process is the best way for us to get rid of the property,” Boland said. “I think that's the best route, to go with the bidding process.”
In response to a question from another board member, Washington distinguished between the HMS situation and one that had involved her personally. In the latter case, Washington noted, a property that she had donated to the district had been returned to her without any problem because the proposed school had never been built.
Had the school been built, she said, she would likely have encountered the same problems that the family claiming ownership of the HMS property was encountering.
School Board Member Sandra Saunders returned to the inappropriateness of placing the updated offer on the agenda.
“That school (HMS) has been down 10 to 15 years,” Saunders said. “So why the desire to rush now?”
First, she said, the issue of the family deed should be cleared. Also, another church had expressed an interest in acquiring the property, she said.
Washington agreed.
“HMS has been sitting there for years and nobody paid attention to it until the church came forward,” she said.
Arbulu defended her action.
“It's difficult for us to turn away money when we're in a state of financial crisis,” she said. “It's not the first time I have brought this bid to you.”
“This is not a bid, it's an offer,” Washington said. “I'm more concerned about what's best for the community. So let's not focus so much on the money and instead build a good foundation for Jefferson County. I'm in no rush to get rid of the building. We focus on the wrong things. We focus on buildings and dollars but I care about the children.”
Which that the discussion derailed into one of erratic school bus drivers and alleged incidents of bus drivers not reporting accidents and dropping elementary school children on dangerous roadways.
In the end, the board took no action on True Wisdom's offer. The board did, however, correct a previous oversight by putting the HMS property on the surplus list. Reeves assured the board that putting the property on the surplus list didn't affect how they ultimately decided to dispose of the property. But declaring it a surplus was a necessary step in the process, he said.
“Once you define it as surplus, you can do what you want with it,” Reeves said. “Surplus simply means it's no longer used for educational purposes.”
Joy Frisby, a citizen, reminded the board that the HMS issue had been ongoing for 11 months without a resolution. If nothing else, she said, the board should come up with a policy for how to dispose of surplus buildings.
On a related issue, the board agreed to put the food service center building at the shuttered Jefferson Elementary School facility on Mamie Scott Drive out for bids. First, however, the board must get a legal description of the center separate from the rest of the property, so that it can be carved out legally for selling purposes. The board is scheduled to discuss the legal description, as well as the HMS issue at a future workshop.