WARREN SCHOOLS Building sale under study

Some buildings are expected to be demolished as part of a OSFC project.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A charter school has expressed interest in buying a former Warren School District building.
James Russo, the district's executive director of business operations, declined to identify the charter school or say which building its representatives had expressed interest in purchasing.
Four school buildings -- Dickey Avenue, Willard, Devon and Roosevelt elementary schools -- are vacant. Devon and Roosevelt closed at the end of the 2002-03 school year. Dickey and Willard have been closed for several years.
Russo is awaiting an opinion from the district's legal counsel regarding requirements of selling school buildings to charter schools.
The district is in the early stages of an Ohio School Facilities Commission project to build new school buildings. The plan, which is mostly being funded by OSFC, is to build five new kindergarten-through-eighth-grade buildings and a new high school.
Current buildings would likely be demolished, although the school board hasn't taken action to do that.
Provisions of law
The Ohio Department of Education says state law requires that a school district must first offer an unused building for sale to a start-up community school located within the district if the district intends to dispose of the building.
"My understanding is we can demolish our existing buildings," Russo said, referring to the buildings still being used as schools.
Money for abatement and demolition of school buildings was included in the amount coming from OSFC, he said. Voters in November approved a bond issue to provide the local portion of the roughly $170 million project.
If the district wants to sell the property, there's an issue of whether first choice must be given to charter schools, Russo said.
"There's no question we can demolish buildings on a site where we plan to build," he said. "The question is on the site where we're not going to build."
What happens
In 1997, the Youngstown school board sold the former South High School building on Market Street to a Mahoning Valley religious group. That group turned the building into Eagle Heights Academy, a charter school, the next year.
Many public school supporters have been critical of charter or community schools because the per-pupil funding from the state follows a pupil to the charter school.
Officials at two community schools operating in the city -- Life Skills of Trumbull County and Holy Trinity Orthodox Christian Academy -- said they haven't inquired about buying any of the city's former school buildings.
Dorothea Howe, a spokeswoman at the Ohio Department of Education, said there is a preliminary agreement for Summit School for Alternative Learners, sponsored by Lucas County, to be in Warren.