Leaders of the Pulaski County Special School District are taking the unusual step of leasing -- and possibly selling -- a vacant school campus to a competing, open-enrollment charter school organization for its use as a charter school.
The lease-to-own agreement was negotiated by the school district and the Academics Plus Charter Schools Inc. of Maumelle for the vacant Scott Elementary School, 15306 Alexander Road in east Pulaski County.
The agreement was finalized last week by Arkansas Education Commissioner Johnny Key, Arkansas Department of Education spokesman Kimberly Friedman said Monday. Key is the policymaking agent in what continues to be the state-controlled Pulaski County Special district until a new School Board can be elected and trained later this year.
The agreement calls for the charter school organization that is headed by Executive Director Rob McGill to pay $5,000 a month starting April 1 for the property that consists of 21.19 acres, four buildings, a playground, a sewage treatment plant and a parking lot. The four buildings include the main school building with classrooms and office space, a cafeteria, a physical education building and a storage building.
The initial term of the lease will cost the charter system $75,000 before it expires June 30, 2017.
The lease will automatically renew for four, 12-month terms, at a cost of $60,000 a year, unless Academics Plus provides written notice it wants to end the lease, or if the charter system closes on the purchase of the building.
In regard to a purchase of the site, the agreement allows Academics Plus to buy the property for a price equal to $813,500 minus any rent paid -- up to $75,000 -- during the initial term of the lease.
"In no case shall the purchase price be less than $738,500, except with the consent of both parties," the agreement states.
Jerry Guess, superintendent of the Pulaski County Special School District, said he was pleased with the agreement that will enable the district to sell the school site at a price near its appraised value.
"The district didn't have any use for it, so to sell it at a fair market value is a fine idea," Guess said about the school that was closed to pupils after the 2013-14 school year. "As long as I am true to the taxpayers, I feel pretty good about it," he said.
Academics Plus Charter Schools Inc. received approval from the Arkansas Board of Education in December to open an independently operated charter school for grades kindergarten through 12, starting with kindergarten through sixth grade, in the Scott community. At that time, charter school system leaders said they hoped to reach an agreement with the school district to acquire the vacant campus but had not done so at that point.
"We'll take over in April and get it looking the way we want it to look, get it painted and cleaned up and ready for kids in August," McGill said Monday.
So far 118 pupils have registered to attend the school that will be headed by Principal Diane Gross, who has been the elementary principal at Maumelle Charter Elementary School. The new school that will feature an agricultural education will continue to accept pupils through the summer, McGill said, adding that 150 pupils is a goal for the first year.
The building can house up to 300 without the construction of more classrooms.
McGill said it took awhile for the charter school operators and the Pulaski County Special district to reach the lease-to-own agreement but was glad the district was willing to work with the charter school system.
He said there were two appraisals of the property and the negotiators settled for a sale price in the middle.
McGill said he hopes the system can buy the property, but the lease agreement gives the system some flexibility.
A school district sale of school property to a not-for-profit charter school organization isn't unprecedented in Arkansas, but it's still a novelty. Open-enrollment charter schools -- which are public -- and traditional school districts compete for the same students.
KIPP: Delta Public Schools, headquartered in Helena-West Helena, recently purchased the former Central Elementary School from the Blytheville School District for $806,000. The KIPP charter system is moving its already existing fourth-through-sixth grade program from its Sen. Steve Bryles Campus in Blytheville to the former Central Elementary site that will over time expand to serve to kindergarten through sixth grades.
The former Belwood Elementary School, 3902 Virginia Lane, in the North Little Rock School District, is now the home to the Capitol City Lighthouse Charter School.
That, however, was unintentional on the North Little Rock district's part. The district sold the vacant Belwood campus to another buyer, which in turn made the property available to the Lighthouse Academies charter school organization. That transaction caused the North Little Rock School Board to attempt to place restrictive clauses on the sales of other district properties and even contemplate demolishing one or more of its vacant schools to avoid making space available to competing education organizations.
Guess, the superintendent of the Pulaski County Special district, said the district is obligated to sell the properties at realistic prices.
"If you are dealing with another public entity -- like a city government -- you might be able to lease property to them for 100 years for $100," Guess said. "But in the case of an outright sale, you have to establish a fair market value and then that becomes the goal that you try to attain."
The new Jacksonville/North Pulaski School District that will detach from the Pulaski County Special district on July 1 is in the process of issuing bonds to raise almost $15.4 million -- of which $10.3 million will be used to buy 10 campuses from the Pulaski County Special district.
Metro on 03/22/2016