On Monday evening, the Mason City school board will hold a public hearing about the possible sale of the Madison School property at the 2600 block of South Jefferson Avenue. Weeks ago, the board head a public meeting with residents at the school about its future, and several options were discussed. Among them were selling the property, selling only part of the property, keeping the school and leasing or utilizing the building to some degree, and forming a partnership with other entities to use the structure and grounds for the betterment of the community.
All that talk appears to have gone out the window as the district appears to be moving in the direction of selling the building and the attached playground, something many nearby residents dreads due to the looming chance that private developers would gut the school building and leave it to rot, or it would be torn down and low-income housing would be built. Either scenario has instilled fear that the neighborhood would continue a downward spiral.
The public hearing is set for 6:00 PM and the public is allowed to speak.
Also on the agenda is a special presentation by Edith Blanchard, Director of the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum, on a potential partnership between the district and the museum called “Community Connections with the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum, a great cultural and educational resource.”
Jason Woodhouse of CRW Architecture, will provide an update on the Mason City High School Renovation project Phase 6A and 6B.
Assistant Superintendent of Administrative Services Hal Minear will review the 2014- 2015 certified enrollment figures and class size report.
Board Secretary Ramona Jeffrey will provide information regarding recent legislation related to the Early Retirement Incentive Program, what that means for the District and present early retirement plans for Board review.
This should be interesting. I say sell it off and get it off the tax rolls. Either that or give it to the city for a park area.
LVS, I may be wrong but I believe what you meant to say is sell it and get it on the tax rolls rather than off the tax rolls. I don’t believe the school pays any property tax.
I agree with selling it but that would be hard to do. It is so old and the heating and cooling bill in that building would be prohibitive for office or apartment space.
Saving the playground area for a city park would be a good idea. There is room to build two or three nice houses with nice yards on the school…
@John-You are correct. I mis-spoke there. What I meant was it is costing the taxpayers to maintain, insure and all the other stuff that goes into owning the thing.