Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Monday, December 11, 2006
What about selling Ludlow II?
The one question (suggested by a GOTB reader) that Stan Lucas didn’t completely answer from his Q&A here Saturday about the Ludlow buildings was about whether the district might consider selling the Ludlow II building, across the street from its main downtown headquarters.
On Thursday, I asked board President Gail Littlejohn about that idea. It sounds like that reader’s question really got her thinking and prompted some research into the question.
This all began with a GOTB reader’s observation that few people seemed to work at Ludlow II. In his answer, Stan Lucas said the building is mostly classrooms as it was used by Reynolds for training. He said only about 24 people actually work in the building.
The reader’s question also raised the possibility of selling Ludlow II, which is a pretty nice downtown building, to raise cash. The reader pointed out that with new schools coming online, the district would have several good facilities to host training. I asked Littlejohn about this and here was her response:
“Any properties we own that are not going to be used directly for instruction are fair game to consider better use for that facility and perhaps even the sale of it.”
She went on to say that this question prompted the board to ask for an assessment of Ludlow II and the percentage of time the building is in use.
“Good ideas come from a lot of places. We will certainly take a look at that,” she said.
Littlejohn pointed to the district’s interest in selling its Jackson Center building as an example of its willingness to consider all options for non-instructional buildings.
Jackson Center has a bit of a sordid history. Once part of a school, it was converted into a “math and science” center at a multi-million dollar cost in the mid-1990s. When I started covering the district in 1999, the board was very frustrated with the ultimate length and cost of the project. But in the end, Jackson Center became a useful training center.
The district now rents part of it to Central State University for its west campus and the building hosts the Dayton Technology Design High School. It also still hosts district meetings and training programs, including board meetings.
The board actually had planned to put DTDHS at Ludlow II until downtown business leaders, who have made it their mission to rid downtown of teens, objected. Still, if the district ever had a buyer for Jackson Center, it could theoretically move DTDHS and perhaps even CSU West to Ludlow II.
Altogether, the district has four non-academic buildings for sale or that it potentially could sell — the old administration building on First Street; the old Patterson High School, also on First Street; Jackson Center; and Ludlow II. (This is not counting Roosevelt High School, which the district plans to demolish and replace with a new school and a city-run recreation complex.)
Meanwhile, the city wants to buy Patterson Career Center for its ball park village project near the riverfront. Of course, that is a rare case. Overall, downtown is a a pretty slow real estate market right now. I’m not sure proceeds from real estate sales is anything the district can count on for revenue, at least not in the short term.
What do you think? Are there other real estate strategies the district could pursue to raise cash in a time of crisis?
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