Austintown will benefit from deal to sell school

For nearly 100 years, a sprawling center of learning stood proudly in the heart of Austintown Township. That school, variously known as the Austintown Centralized School, Austintown Fitch High School and Austintown Middle School, grew in physical size and student population over the years, matching the urban township’s meteoric growth.

The school’s roots are inextricably grounded in the generosity of one John H. Fitch. Fitch, born in the township in 1843, donated eight of his 400 acres on Mahoning Avenue to the district in 1915 to consolidate the township’s eight one-room schoolhouses into a modern consolidated center of learning for all township students. That generosity continues to be honored today as the school district’s high school still bears the Fitch name.

Time and circumstance, however, have taken their toll on the century-old structure. As the need for larger and more modern facilities for the district grew, the old Fitch school outgrew its usefulness. Eight years ago, it was closed when a new middle school opened.

Over the bulk of the past decade, the once-proud school complex has stood as a vacant and deteriorating white elephant and as a liability to the fiscally-challenged local school district. Efforts to demolish it and sell the property have been wrought with costly setback after setback for the board of education.

A DEAL AT LAST

That’s why an agreement announced this month of a settlement that clears the way for sale of the prime property arrives as refreshingly good news.

The board of education, school district leaders and heirs to the family of John Fitch must now work cooperatively and aggressively toward razing the old school and offering the property up to the best and highest bidder.

According to Austintown Schools Superintendent Vincent Colaluca, an out-of-court settlement with the Fitch family allows the district “to collaboratively move forward to sell the property.”

The agreement greatly pleases Dr. David Ritchie, longtime school board member. “After a lot of struggling, after much wasted expense to us and to everyone else involved, I think it’s going to be a great deal and will be a positive move for the township – no question,” he said.

We share Dr. Ritchie’s optimistic outlook. The promise of finally selling the property will end years of costly struggles and legal quandaries. For the school system, the benefits include ridding it of an unnecessary and expensive liability. The sale of the lucrative acreage also stands to provide a significant, albeit short-term, boost to the 5,400-student school district’s cash-strapped coffers.

For the larger Austintown community, the deal paves the way for commercial redevelopment of the land that will rid the township of an increasingly deteriorating eyesore smack-dab in the middle of an otherwise bustling business district. In addition, the timing of the deal could hardly be more propitious.

Thanks to a slowly improving regional economy and to the opening of the $125 million Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course last fall, the township is enjoying a sizzling growth mode and remains ripe for more development. The former school’s location at 5800 Mahoning Ave. next to the revitalized Austintown Plaza and across from the bustling Wal-Mart SuperCenter should attract a bevy of bidders.

As a result, we commend school district leaders and heirs to the family for their determination toward reaching a deal that bodes well for the township, for the school system and for preservation of the century-old legacy of public-spirited generosity and community commitment of John H. Fitch.