Commissioners Act To Use Closed Schools

In a joint meeting of our two government boards, the Bertie County Commissioners passed two resolutions last night. After discussions with the Board of Education to try and work through our problem of excess school buildings sitting idle, the resolutions started final actions to get some value for our citizens by using the facilities they have paid for. To understand what is going on, some history is required.

A few years ago some of our local officials in the school system worked with the federal Department of Justice to close two of our schools by court order. It damaged two of our communities, created a local movement in opposition to the BOE, contributed to open hostility between the two boards of governement in our county (commissioners and education), and left a legacy of distrust that local officials are still trying to overcome. The cooperation of last night was a good start.



Chairman of County Commissioners Rick Harrell opened the meeting and called the County Commisioners into session.


These two elementary schools were closed during a time when former school officials focused considerable time and efforts in building new schools in our county. Many people were outraged at this focus for multiple reasons. We are losing population and had an excess of classroom space already. We are a poor county and directing money to buildings instead of teachers made no sense to most. No logical reason existed for directing our energies to building new schoools at a time when our students were falling farther and farther behind in student achievement and school officials seemed uncertain how to stop the slide. Unable to build a new high school due to mistakes in their planning, school officials settled for building a new middle school just so they could claim to build something. This created two more empty schools in our small county.

So now we have four schools sitting idle; Southwestern and C.G. White Middle Schools, J.P. Law and Askewville Elementary Schools. What a waste. The BOE can only justify using one of these for administration purposes and right now their plan is to make that Southwestern. That leaves three schools that will sit idle unless our elected officials act.



Chairman of Board of Education Rickey Freeman spoke next and called the Board of Education into session.


The County Commissioners have been working with citizens in our various communities to try and get some value for these idle buildings and land. County Manager Zee Lamb gave a summary of the many uses for C.G. White that have been identified as providing value to our citizens. An article in the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald does a great job of documenting the various groups who are interested in the C.G. White School and the uses that have been envisioned to make this building a value to our communities. You can read that article by Jennipher Dickens here.

Many legal problems existed that made this complicated. The two elementary schools had recently had millions of dollars spent on refurbishing them just before they were closed. Not good planning by some former Board of Education members as it left the schools encumbered with bond restrictions prohibiting using these schools for anything but what the courts had banned.

The disposal of a closed school is always complicated in North Carolina due to the regulatory requirements of the state involved in the process, so even the middle school that is excess cannot be sold to the county without extensive actions by both boards, tying up a lot of time for government officials and taking up much time in a crowded schedule. It includes a provision that they must first offer the school to the county whose tax payers built the school . . . . but does not make it easy.

Our County Commisioners and Board of Education met in the Council on Aging building last night to try and work through some of these hurdles.




County Commissioners and staff - Morris Rascoe, Lloyd Smith, Zee Lamb, Charles Smith, Wallace Perry, Norman Cherry and L.C. Hoggard



Board of Education and staff - Rickey Freeman, Melinda Eure, Gloria Lee, Alton Parker, Emma Johnson and Dr. Michael Priddy


There was some discussion about the fair market value of C.G. White which has been appraised by our Bertie County Tax Administrator Hosea Wilson. Highlights from his professional appraisal are as follows. ". . . the Cost Approach is the only approach pertinent." ". . . the Sales Comparison and Income Approach have been considered but deemed not applicable." ". . . the property suffers from Physical Deterioration and Functional Obsolescence at such a rate that the improvements no longer contribute any value to the land or site itself. " "It would be necessary to raze the improvements and have infrastructure in place to develop the site into a residential subdivision and reach its potential highest and best use. " ". . . the fair market value of the subject property on July 24, 2007 is $30,000.00."

The first act last night of the County Commissioners was in response to a motion of Commissioner Norman Cherry, seconded by Commissioner Wallace Perry, and unanimously passed, to purchase back the C.G. White Middle School from the BOE so we can use it for the community. A part of Commissioner Cherry's proposal included creating a working group of interested parties to work out details of how best to use the property once it was in the county's possession. However the first step was considering the acts needed to complete the repurchase at the next County Commissioner's meeting on August 6th, so that the BOE could act on August 13th at their next meeting. The County will work out a proposed price (to be determined in line with Hosea Wilson's appraisal) to be forwarded to the BOE.

Of course the bond restrictions on the two elementary schools make them a more complicated problem. Our County Attorney, Lloyd Smith, has been working to resolve this issue with the lender. Because of the conscientious way our finances have been maintained, we are well secured for the bond repayments on all of our QZAB loans. That means the lender is well secured and therefore willing to work with us to resolve this. The County Commissioner's and County Manager Zee Lamb are to be commended for this situation, as it has not been easy in a poor county like Bertie to maintain a good financial reputation. It has taken a lot of hard work and focus.

The second significant action taken last night was about this goal of releasing the schools from bond restrictions. In response to a motion by Vice Chairman L.C. Hoggard, seconded by Commsioner Wallace Perry, the commisioners authorized the County Attorney to complete his negotiations to release the two elementary schools from the bond restrictions. After this release is secured, the plan is to find ways to use these two buildings for our community and citizens as well.

Since these schools are currently owned by the County, and merely leased to the Board of Education, it will have to be determined how best to resolve the ownership issue. Though the BOE has a legal right to ask that title be transferred to the school system, the schools would be surplus and merely have to be disposed of through the same complicated process of returning them to the county being pursued for C.G. White. As Dr. Michael Priddy, our acting Superintendent, noted it would seem prudent to leave title with the county to avoid the bureacratic overhead of turning right around and giving them back to the county.

A great deal of credit goes to our County Commissioners and Board of Education for acting to get some value from these schools built with our tax dollars.

Thank you.