The Sweetwater Union High School District moved closer to doing away with a vacant two-acre lot that the district says it has no use for.
The district’s board of trustees last week agreed with the District Advisory Committee’s Dec. 17, 2017 recommendation to declare the vacant lot near St. Rose of Lima Parish as surplus because there was no educational need for it, said trustee Frank Tarantino.
“(The property) is definitely too small for a school,” Tarantino said. “It doesn’t serve any kind of district purpose so we need to surplus it.”
By declaring the property at 453 Third Ave. a surplus, the district in the coming weeks will notify public entities that the property is being offered at fair market value, $5.7 million.
The value of the property was determined last October by an independent appraiser, said Moises Aguirre, the district’s assistant superintendent of facilities and operations.
If a public entity does not show an interest the property in a 45-day window, the district could then pursue a buyer through a public bid.
The District Advisory Committee, also known as the 7-11 committee, had also recommended in a report to the board that the district uses funds from a sale “for vocational training or construction trades including but not limited to plumbing, pipe fitting, electrical, carpentry, roofing and painting; and specifically, to ensure services are inclusive of students with special needs.”
Aguirre said despite the recommendation it is up to the board to decide how to allocate the revenue from the sale.
“Ultimately it is the board’s determination into how that money is used,” he said.
Tarantino said the district could use the money from the sale. He said in the future he would like to see the district hold several meetings with stakeholders to decide where the money will go.
Formerly, under former superintendent Ed Brand, the district had planned to turn that property into what was called the Colony Project, a mixture of residential and commercial property.
However, those plans never materialized for unknown reasons.
Tarantino said there are no plans for the district to make money from the property through real estate, as was the plan with past school boards.
“My opinion is we don’t want to get into the business of building houses and renting them out to people,” he said. “I don’t think that is part of our mission.”
