The USD 253 Board of Education now has a realtor secured to oversee the sale of the former Kansas Avenue School Building.
During their regular meeting Wednesday evening, board members approved an RFP from Matt Johnson of Diamond Partners Inc. KellerWilliams Realty to oversee the building’s sale. The Diamond Partners RFP was the only one received by the district for this process which Superintendent Dr. Allison Anderson Harder says was “a bit surprising.”
Anderson Harder tells KVOE News she is excited about what Diamond Partners can do for the district, noting they also market in the Kansas City area, which may open the door to a whole new realm of potential buyers.
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 sale.
In other business, board members revisited discussions on the 2025-26 academic calendar. The item was originally brought before the board on May 8th and was tabled at that time to allow for more information to be collected as staff and patrons appeared split on two of the four calendar models.
Staff took the top two options, originally options one and four now one and two, and restarted the survey process with more than 400 community member and parent responses and more than 350 staff responses. The responses from staff overwhelmingly favored option two, previously option four, while the community and parent results were nearly even on the two.
It appears the board is interested in moving forward with option two, however, members decided to send it back to the calendar committee for further refinement before officially approving it. In its current form, option two would remove the late start days for Emporia Middle School and Emporia High School, add nine minutes to the school day for Pre-K and 18 minutes for all elementary schools while adding a monthly early release day.
Board President Jami Reever says the board is pleased with the benefits the new calendar would bring, but says there a just a few minor tweaks that need to be made before they can sign off on it.
The item will next come before board members for consideration in October.
In other business Wednesday, board members:
*Held a second reading of student handbooks
*Held a first reading of and approved a series of board policy updates
*Received the regular construction update from McCownGordon Construction on the Building for the Future Bond Initiative
*Approved a renewal of district property, casualty and workers comp insurance
*Approved quotes for refinishing both the Emporia High School varsity and JV gymnasium floors.
Board members also spent better than the first hour of the meeting in executive session for several purposes including consultation with an attorney, negotiations and acquisition of property. No action was taken.
The USD 253 Board of Education will next convene on Wednesday, June 26 inside of the Mary Herbert Education Center.
