Wednesday, July 21, 1999
Oxford school up for what-if auction
Sale hinges on ballot issue
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
OXFORD — The new owners of Stewart Elementary School could be known Sept. 1 — nearly five years before the Talawanda Board of Education plans on vacating the school.
Potential buyers of the building are invited to a 2 p.m. auction that day. The minimum bid for the building and 6 acres it sits on is $1.5 million, said James Rowan, Talawanda treasurer. The top bidder will win the option to buy the school when the district is ready to sell.
It's all contingent on voters approving a combination ballot issue the school board has put on the Nov. 2 ballot. It includes $34 million to build a high school and make improvements at the other buildings, and a 0.75 percent income tax to pay for salary increases for teachers and day-to-day operations. Voters will decide both money requests as a package.
Should the ballot issue pass, a high school would be built on 157 acres on Millville-Oxford Road across from the College View Motel. Talawanda High School would be converted to an elementary school, and Stewart would close after the high school is renovated.
“We've had three serious inquiries about Stewart during this school year,” Superintendent Susan Cobb told the school board Monday.
Stewart wouldn't be vacated until a year after the new high school opens — planned for August 2003, if the ballot issue passes — because the district would spend the 2003-04 school year renovating the vacated high school to use as an elementary, Mr. Rowan said.
“We wanted to make sure we give ourselves plenty of time,” Mr. Rowan said. “We could sell Stewart earlier if we finish all the work.”
Using the high school as an elementary school would require changing attendance boundaries of the three elementary schools — Maud Marshall, Kramer and the old high school, Ms. Cobb said. “It is premature at this time to propose what those attendance boundaries might be,” she said.
But she did say when that might happen. In September 2002, a committee would be formed to review options for redistricting. Public hearings on proposals from the committee would be set for November of that year, with a recommendation to the school board due by the end of 2002.
Public hearings on the recommendation could be in January 2003, with a decision by the board the following month.
Families would be notified of their child's assignment in March, with bus routes developed in May.
In August 2004, the district would begin operating with:
• Three elementary schools, each housing grades kindergarten to 5.
• One middle school for grades 6-8.
• The new high school for grades 9-12.
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