The Butler Area School Board is moving ahead with plans to list the former Broad Street Elementary School even though a prospective buyer is interested in the property.
A group of three local people attended Monday night’s school board meeting and outlined a plan to turn the facility into a religious-based youth center. Former Butler City Councilwoman Cherie Readie, Cindy Parker and Pastor Terry Devlin of Saxonburg are part of a group already holding monthly dinners for low-income city residents and they would like to expand their operations.
The group expressed intent to keep the playground at the school and for the community to have input with how the facility would be used. Since the property would be used for things like counseling, tutoring, music lessons, and intramural sports, the group does not see a problem with fitting into the permitted use of the facility in a residential area. The group would also like to make the purchase without financing so they are accepting donations.
However, the group was not yet ready to make a formal offer. That led to the school board voting to put out a request for proposals for realtors interested in listing and showing the property. The deadline for those proposals is January and the board will consider them at that time. The board previously put out a request for proposals back in June and received only one response, which they decided to not act on and could now be expired.
The school board approved the sale of the former school for $400,000 to The ARC of Butler County in August after rejecting at least two other bids. However, Butler City Council voted against a conditional use request made by the ARC last week, which led to the ARC withdrawing their offer.
The school board also discussed a recommendation by their insurance company to dismantle the playground equipment at the former Broad Street School due to liability concerns. This area is currently not completely fenced off and is used by the public and maintained by district staff, which is paid with Butler Area School District taxpayer funds.
Broad Street Elementary in the City of Butler was closed last year as part of a consolidation within the Butler Area School District.
Written By: Ryan Saeler
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