The Kansas Avenue School Building is now for sale, or at least it will be once a realtor is secured.
The USD 253 Board of Education approved opening the Request for Proposal Process to that end as part of their regular meeting Wednesday evening. The opening of the RFP process comes after the Kansas Legislature took no action on the property before adjourning sine die this past week.
Per state law, the legislature is given the first right of refusal to claim school properties before districts can commence their sale process. While a timeline for when RFPs will be due is currently pending, USD 253 Superintendent Dr. Allison Anderson Harder says once a realtor is selected, she is hopeful it won’t take long before offers for the property are on the table.
The board of education approved the closure of the building at 315 South Market back in February. The building was previously leased to Crosswinds Counseling and Wellness which moved out of the facility in late December and was also being utilized by the Kansas Special Education Cooperative which will be moving to a new location at the end of the current academic year.
With no occupants and rising costs of maintenance and operation, Anderson-Harder stated previously there was no further use for the facility in its current form leading to its closure and future sale.
In separate matters Wednesday, board members chose to table conversations and potential approval of the 2025-26 academic calendar until its next meeting in June. The reason for the tabling was due to patrons and district staff showing equal favor to two different options of the calendar.
Four versions of the calendar were presented to patrons and staff through a recent survey with staff members showing favor to option one and patrons showing heavy favor towards option four. Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Judy Stanley explained the differences.
Over the next month, the district plans to gather additional input from staff and patrons on options one and four and will bring that information back to the board for further discussion and possible action on June 12.
In other business Wednesday evening, board members approved an amendment to the 2023-24 budget to capture roughly $700,000 in additional state funding. The added dollars come after a change in financial weightings at the state level. The board also approved a series of infrastructure items, including sewer repairs at Emporia High and Logan Avenue Elementary, new paint for the Emporia High main gymnasium, new parking lots at Emporia High and window repairs at Emporia Middle School.
The total projected cost is over $1.8 million for these projects.
The board also approved meal prices for the 2024-2025 academic year which will see a five-cent increase for all meals aside from lunches at the high school which will increase by 10 cents. Board members also approved a series of bids for furniture, fixtures and equipment at William Allen White Elementary School and had a first reading for student handbooks.
Before their main agenda, board members convened for a roughly 90-minute study session to review and discuss chronic absenteeism data.
