City to take ownership of three Elyria School buildings

ELYRIA — Three Elyria school buildings will be owned by the city after the school board approved a trade between the two entities Wednesday evening. The soon-to-be empty Franklin Elementary, McKinley Elementary and Oakwood Elementary schools will go into the city's possession while the school district will take possession of some city-owned property off near the Northwood Middle School property. Under Ohio law, Elyria Schools are required to offer a first right of refusal for any buildings for lease or sale to charter schools, college-preparatory boarding schools or any STEM schools that are within the district. However, the district can choose to trade its properties with the city for a piece of city-owned property. The district would not be required to offer it to a charter school first if it did a land exchange because it wouldn't be selling anything. By trading the buildings with the city, the school district will not have to pay the demolition costs for the school buildings, saving the district about $1.5 million. Franklin's demolition and abatement alone would have cost more than $700,000. Those dollars can go toward the construction of the new buildings. Board President Greg Elek said that the extra money will be much needed for the schools. "What's really important here is once they approved us, the projection the state used was significantly lower than the actual students. So, not only are the dollars drying up, but also we're having considerably more students, so we've had to do a number things to stay on budget. And I'm very excited that we are still on budget and we're still on time." Elek said work on trading the buildings started during Mayor Holly Brinda's administration and Council members carried it through. The school district took over 3 acres of property at the new Northwood Campus to provide a bit more of a buffer. Elek said the city was interested in Oakwood because it backs up to West Park. Because McKinley Elementary sits next to University Hospitals, Elek said the hospital might be interested in the property. And at Franklin Elementary, Elek said a business already is interested in using the building for its work. "It kind of was a no-brainer for both sides," Elek said. "It helps us, and it helps the city. We're just excited for the opportunity." Those three properties also had an updated property valuation completed by the Lorain County auditor and Board of Revision. Crestwood, Prospect and Windsor Elementary, as well as Northwood Middle, also will not be demolished, saving the school district about another $1.5 million in costs, but the future of those buildings is still unclear. Elek said the district is still having conversations with Council members about those, and future actions could be taken. But it's also possible those properties could go up for auction, particularly the Northwood property. If charter schools don't respond within 60 days, the school district would be allowed to place the school buildings up for auction. Windsor, Northwood and Franklin will be empty in the fall as the new schools open. Elek said that those three schools are still on track to be completed in time for the September start date. Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com. Follow her on Twitter @Misslainamae.