The front door of the Priestley school building in west Carrollton. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)
The board of directors overseeing Lycée Francais de la Nouvelle-Orleans have decided to make an offer to buy the old Alfred C. Priestley Junior High School building from the Orleans Parish School Board.
“We’re excited about the property and what we can do there,” said board member Mary Jacobs Jones, who is chair of the school’s facilities committee.
The board unanimously voted to submit an offer letter for the long-shuttered west Carrolton school building Friday, the day the bid closes to schools. Under state law, charter schools have first dibs at the Priestley building, because it is currently considered surplus by the OPSB and slated for public auction.
Other charter schools could seek to buy the building as well, but any charter school has priority over private developers at this stage. The final sale price is up to the Orleans Parish School Board.
According to board members, and information made publicly available on the Orleans Parish School Board website, he school was recently reappraised for $425,000.
At the meeting, board member Tim Gray echoed Jones’ enthusiasm, and added that he thought the asking price was more than fair.
“I think it’s been unanimous by everyone who’s looked at the building that there’s potential,” Gray said. “I was relieved when the number came back — I was concerned that it would be higher.”
Board members discussed going higher than the asking price, in case other charter schools also planned to put in bids. Members voted to ultimately draft a letter which outlines an agreed-upon sales range. Since the bid process is open to the public, Lycée Francais board members asked that Uptown Messenger not post the final bid amount that they had agreed upon, lest other schools get an unfair advantage.
According to the agreement, the letter would also ask that the school be given 90 days to assess the building before any sale is made final.
During the meeting, members seemed unclear about what would happen next. Board member Tim Gray pointed out that while other statutes listed specific guidelines for how private developers should purchase buildings from the OPSB, the laws regarding charter schools seemed to be a little more vague.
For example, the Orleans Parish School Board must offer the building to charters at fair market value, but what’s less clear is what happens when more than one school makes an offer, Gray explained. One statute explains that when the school board takes an offer from the highest bidder, the OPSB is supposed to take the highest bid. The statute that explains the process for selling property to charter schools, however, is a little more ambiguous, he added.
“I think we’re in unchartered water,” Gray said at the meeting.
Ultimately, school officials were hopeful that they would have an answer within three weeks about whether or not the Lycée Francais offer had been accepted. The site, located at 1619 Leonidas St., would be Lycée’s middle school as the charter adds grades to its program.
