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Topic: Cody gone- What about other vacant school buildings?

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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Flint's Cody Elementary undergoing demolition



By Blake Thorne | bthorne1@mlive.com
on December 02, 2012 at 4:00 PM, updated December 02, 2012 at 4:01 PM

FLINT, MI -- Flint's closed Cody Elementary is undergoing demolition, a process that is expected to take until the end of December.

The demolition process began several weeks ago with preparation in the interior, said district spokesman Bob Campbell.

Crews were on site at the school Friday tearing down exterior walls. The building is located at Fenton Road near W. Atherton Road.

In May, the building was the location of three fires in one week.

The building has been closed for about ten years.

There are no plans yet for the property after demolition, Campbell said.


Blake Thorne covers K-12 schools and higher education for The Flint Journal. Contact him at bthorne1@mlive.com or 810-347-8194. Follow him on Twitter or Facebook.
Post Mon Dec 03, 2012 7:30 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

One by one these vacant schools have become attractive nuisances adding to the blight of the neighborhood they are in. The size and cost of heating these mammoth structures make their reuse prohibitive in most cases.

This school and others have been vandalized. The residents in this area even allege the facility was used in satanic rituals and that dead animals were found inside. The School system can little afford to maintain and secure these structures and the extensive thefts from these buildings make their reuse impractical.

The city needs to make the School system accountable and require a program for the future of these abandoned buildings, some of which the school system refuses to sell.
Post Mon Dec 03, 2012 7:37 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Selling of vacant schools is underway

The School District is counting on $11 million in revenues this school year from properties it has put on the market.

by Benjamin Herold for NewsWorks, a Notebook news Partner

There is developer interest in the old West Philadelphia High School building, the big-ticket item among District properties for sale. The District's asking price for the property is $6.5 million.

With dozens of new school closings looming, the School District of Philadelphia has started selling off some of its properties that are already vacant.

Three building sales were approved by the School Reform Commission in November: the former Walton and Muhr elementary schools in North Philadelphia and Jones Annex in Kensington.

More deals are anticipated, including the sale of the historic former home of West Philadelphia High. On Nov. 10, the District hosted a community forum at which representatives from New York-based Strong Place Partners said they intended to purchase the 250,000-square-foot school building at 47th and Walnut Streets and convert it into a mix of retail and loft apartments. City Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell of West Philadelphia had said earlier that the District was deciding between two offers from private developers interested in the facility.

“It will probably sell for $6 million, and one estimate said it would cost $38 million just to rehab,” Blackwell said.

This year’s District budget counts on $11 million in revenue from the sale of surplus properties.

Danielle Floyd, the District’s deputy for strategic initiatives, said that the market for old school buildings in Philadelphia overall has been surprisingly robust.

“We’re encouraged,” she said.

The first three deals, however, did not bring in big money. Combined net proceeds will be less than $700,000.

Floyd said the District had received solid offers for “a majority” of the 12 properties it put on the market in February. Five of the properties not yet sold, including West, have price tags over $1 million. Interest in some properties, including a vacant administrative building in Queen Village, has been intense, according to multiple sources.

The District is working with outside real estate brokers, whom Floyd described as helpful in getting potential buyers to look beneath the scarred exteriors of some of the buildings.

“When we look at them, we see potential,” Floyd said. “It was clearly something that added value and had meaning in the community, and it can be that again with the right group of people.”

The bids that have come in thus far are primarily from private developers and charter schools, Floyd said. KIPP Philadelphia was a co-purchaser of the Walton building. Jones Annex was sold to Elm City Capital and Richmond Mills LP, and Muhr went to Philadelphia Suburban Development Corp.

For each property it sells, the District sheds the $40,000-$50,000 annual cost of maintaining a vacant building.

Floyd said that money is just one of several factors the District is considering.

Officials also want to make sure that buildings go to buyers with solid financial backing, a strong track record, a quick timeline, and a plan that makes sense for the surrounding neighborhood. Ensuring that buildings don’t sit vacant for extended periods is a priority.

“The safety concerns and blight that [long-term vacancies] present to a community is a concern the District shares,” Floyd said. “We want to see these properties put back in use.”

In June 2011, the School Reform Commission adopted a new “adaptive reuse policy” to guide the disposition of surplus properties.

Blackwell, who said she’s been involved in the District’s effort to sell West “at every step of the way,” praised their approach.

The District empaneled seven “RFP evaluation teams” across the city to vet proposals from interested buyers.

School officials declined to identify the members of those teams, saying only that they consist of District staff, elected officials, city planners, and community representatives invited by the District.

Floyd defended the secrecy as necessary for any competitive bidding processes.

But some residents in West Philadelphia and elsewhere have criticized the lack of wider public input in deciding the future of major public assets.

Ultimately, the School Reform Commission decides which buyer gets any District property.


Comments (1)



Submitted by James (not verified) on Thu, 11/22/2012 - 08:37.

One thing the SRC should be doing is to ask other city agencies such as the Police Department, Fire Department if they need any of the parcels for new facilities. Thus, free transfers can be made to those affecting agencies without any cost to the taxpayers.

The Federal Government disposes of surplus properties by offering them free to other federal agencies, then state and local agencies and then non profit groups before disposing of them to the public.

Hopefully, the sale of those surplus school buildings will not only generate cash and free the SRC from supporting those buildings but help rejuvenate the neighborhoods the buildings reside on.
Post Mon Dec 03, 2012 7:46 am 
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JCARPENTER
F L I N T O I D

WE NEED TO GET THE SCHOOL DISTRICT TO HELP MIKE BROWN TO SELL OFF CITY OWNED PROPERTIES. HE ONLY GOT US $1.00 EACH FOR THE ARMY RESERVE CENTER AND THE GENESEE TOWERS AND GAVE AWAY THE PARKING LOT ACROSS FROM THE CAPITOL THEATER IN A PHONY TRADE WITH HIS DOWNTOWN BUDDIES. OH I FORGOT THIS WAS ALL IN OUR BEST INTEREST? YOU DONT BELIEVE IT? JUST ASK HIM. HE WILL TELL YOU ABOUT HOW THESE NO BID SALES WERE GOING TO COST THE CITY MONEY.
Post Mon Dec 03, 2012 10:37 am 
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D

Is the school board afraid to sell the empty buildings because someone may want to open a charter school?

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Post Mon Dec 03, 2012 1:05 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

The cost of these vacant schools is a burden on Flint's already strained resources. They are targets for vandalism and fires. Today around noon 3 males were observed behind Garfield School on E Mc Clellan. Police requested entry by school officials as the open windows were higher than the officers in uniform were willing to climb. The men's truck was in the parking lot behind the school. Cook School has been repeatedly vandalized. Lowell was open with missing windows not too long ago. Homedale was destroyed by fire, Civic Park school is missing all of it's windows, and Merrill had to be torn down.


Just what is the plan for these buildings? Their cost in fire services and police services are not worth it. Have they hit Central and Whittier yet?
Post Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:12 pm 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

WI: Empty school buildings cost taxpayers in dollars, choice

By M.D. Kittle / September 6, 2012 / No Comments

By Ryan Ekvall │ Wisconsin Reporter


Milwaukee Public Schools has 21 vacant school buildings, which are costing $1 million annually to maintain.

MADISON — School bells ring, locker doors open and slam shut, parents breathe a sigh of relief and teachers say a silent prayer for patience as students fill the hallways and classrooms of schools vacated over summer recess.

This scene played out all over Wisconsin this week as hundreds of thousands of students head back to school.

The exception is in the 21 Milwaukee Public School buildings, which continue to stand vacant — save the few maintenance workers and electricians who walk the buildings — the way they have for more than a year, according to information obtained by Wisconsin Reporter. [correction: 17 of the 21 vacant MPS buildings have been vacant for more than one year.]

While some legislators lobby for additional funds for MPS, all that emptiness costs taxpayers around $1 million annually, and one state lawmaker believes MPS isn’t parting with the buildings in order to box out choice schools.

In June 2011, Gov. Scott Walker signed a law that allowed the city of Milwaukee to sell or lease vacant school buildings held by MPS, which previously held a deed restriction, preventing the buildings from being used as schools that were not part of MPS. Under the law, MPS retains the authority to sell or lease its buildings, as well.

“Because it passed in June of last year, we thought heading into this school year these buildings would be available,” said Jim Bender, president of School Choice, which promotes alternatives to the state’s public education system. “I would have hoped — on a timeline basis — it would have been completed by now, but, then again, this is government.”

Since June 2011, the city hasn’t sold or leased a single vacant school building. Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines Jr., who strongly lobbied for the law change in the Legislature, did not return repeated calls seeking comment as to why the city has yet to act on its new authority.

MPS has sold two buildings for approximately $1.2 million each, according to MPS.

MPS spokesman Tony Tagliavia said more schools could be sold or used by charter schools.

“Four are currently on the market (Milwaukee School of Entrepreneurship, Carleton, Coggs, Central del Nino). We have letters of intent to purchase a number of other buildings beyond the four,” Tagliavia wrote in an email to Wisconsin Reporter. He did not provide price information about these buildings.

“We have approved five new charter schools for 2013-14 that will be housed among the remaining buildings we still own. And lastly, we do own buildings that are no longer suitable for occupancy,” Tagliavia wrote. He did not provide the locations of these buildings.

Tagliavia gave examples of several previously vacant school buildings — including the new Howard Avenue Montessori School and Golda Meir High School — reopening soon.

“We do not close buildings as a cost-saving effort; we have done it in the past to best match our student population with our facilities — specifically examining under-enrolled and/or underperforming buildings for closure,” he emailed.

The new law requires funds from sold or leased buildings to be applied to the Milwaukee schools operations fund, which would ostensibly reduce the tax burden on Milwaukee residents. School officials did not indicate if the money from the two sold buildings went into this fund. [correction: Funds from buildings sold by the city must be applied towards the school operations fund. Funds from buildings sold by MPS are applied to the school construction fund.]


Milwaukee Public Schools spends the fourth most per pupil among large metropolitan areas in the country, at more than $14,000 per student, but lawmakers have lobbied for more.

State Sen. Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee, for example, recently chastised the current Republican-led biennial budget and School Choice programs for reducing state aid coming into MPS.

“We’re hit pretty hard in Milwaukee. We have a funding flaw that hits my community in the public schools,” he said at a Senate Education and Corrections Committee hearing last week.

Larson did not respond to requests for comment.

State Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, said MPS should sell off its vacant buildings, rather than ask for more money.

“The teacher union-dominated Milwaukee school board is paying to maintain empty buildings and then has the nerve to ask the state for more money,” Grothman told Wisconsin Reporter. “They don’t get rid of them because they’re afraid if they sell them somehow a choice school is going to buy them.”

Bender said the city was creating a process to talk with parties interested in occupying the empty school buildings.

“There are certainly a number of (Choice) schools that have expansion in their short- or long-term plans,” said Bender, noting vacated MPS schools as possible sites of expansion. “For some schools it depends on financing, retrofitting the building, zoning, if the building is up to code – there are specific building-by-building cases, which is why the sooner the better.”

Contact Ryan Ekvall at rekvall@wisconsinreporter.com.
Post Fri Dec 07, 2012 6:22 am 
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo

Yesterday their was a fire at garfield school and today a fire in the old Lowell school on the east side.

Demands need to be made for the school system to sell or demolish these buildings as they are magnets for crime. They are a waste of city resources when the city has to put out multiple fires and send police to patrol them. Many of these schools are very old and have been heavily vandalized for their metal. Civic Park and Cook schools are two more very dangerous schools and both have been heavily vandalized.
Post Fri Jan 11, 2013 9:11 pm 
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