- Swartz Creek schools voted not to accept a $40 million offer for an elementary building
- The developer of the Flint-area megasite seeks the property and would use a portion of its $261 million in state funds to buy it
- The offer came two years after negotiations that did not reach the full board until May, prompting a vote to pursue an internal investigation
SWARTZ CREEK — School officials on Wednesday rejected a $40 million offer to sell an elementary building Michigan officials are eyeing to create a 1,300-acre megasite southwest of Flint.
The Swartz Creek Board of Education voted down the offer during a contentious meeting in which a parent revealed documents showing the school board president was among officials who’d privately explored the deal months before it was disclosed.
After declining the offer to sell Morrish Elementary, board members said they would consider a counter-offer from the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. The group is using $261 million in taxpayer funding to assemble the megasite in the hopes of attracting a large advanced manufacturer.
In July, semiconductor company Sandisk said it had considered the site, but withdrew from committing to building its $63 billion project in Michigan.
Despite the setback, an effort led by the state continues to assemble land for the 2 square-mile megasite in Mundy Township.
The school board, in turn, voted unanimously Wednesday to hire a law firm to investigate whether procedures were followed during two years of quiet negotiations to sell the 400-student school.
“For 18 months, nobody knew what was going on,” Trustee Ken Engle said about the period when the full board and community at large were unaware that administrators were negotiating a price for the building, a replacement school, the design for the school and a possible site to build it.
“Nothing was discussed at this table.”
Anger and frustration erupted in a nearly six-hour meeting.
During public comment, parent Josh Davis presented an email that he said he obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
The document showed three of seven board members — including board President Carrie Germain — had been invited to a meeting in April to discuss the potential Morrish sale with the economic alliance.
The negotiations didn’t become public until the end of May, when then-Superintendent Rod Hetherton told the school board he’d had talks about selling the school.
Related:
- Michigan megasite plan sparks $40M school uproar after Sandisk exit
- Records: Michigan offered more than $6B in failed bid to land chip factories
- Whitmer’s semiconductor dreams near Flint become nightmare for neighbors
- With Flint megasite deal, Michigan tops $1B in spending on development land
Over subsequent months, as trustees had called for an internal investigation and sought information on the offer, neither Germain nor Trustee Andrea Fick had mentioned their first-hand experience of meeting with the economic alliance in the spring. A third trustee at the private meeting resigned this fall, citing harassment.
The April meeting was the “first time I had seen anything concrete,” Germain said. Hetherton and acting superintendent Jim Kitchen were also present.
She continued: “I do what I need to do to be aware of what’s going on, and I exercise discretion.”
The revelation didn’t sit well with most of the board, which is navigating the potential school sale amid charged community opposition to the megasite.
“I have a problem with the fact that only certain board members were invited to this meeting,” said Trustee Kim Winter.
Others asked if it was a fact-finding trip, why weren’t the facts shared with the board members who weren’t invited?
“I would think that as board members, you should have said to (Hetherton) … ‘This really needs to go to the board before you continue any further,’” new Trustee Jenni Wolgast said.
Germain said it was up to Hetherton to disclose what he wanted trustees to know. Hetherton has said he “never got to the point where I thought their offer was good enough to bring to the board.”
Before voting it down, the board had faced a Dec. 1 deadline on the school offer, with a target sale closing date of Jan. 23.
The economic alliance has said the district could operate classrooms for two years while it pursues an alternative, including making additions to other schools.
The agency bills the property — known as the Advanced Manufacturing District of Genesee County — as “the best site in North America” for projects that could produce thousands of jobs,
Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the economic alliance, unveiled the public offer for Morrish in a June board meeting.
The $40 million for the school and 9 acres represents about 15% of the state’s megasite funding. The district’s initial goal of replacing the building bumped up the price, officials said.
After trustees agreed Wednesday that $40 million was not enough to comfortably replace Morrish, Wolgast said the district still didn’t have enough information to make its own counter-offer for the school.
She called for a vote among trustees to see who was willing to entertain a potential sale, with just her and Trustee Autumn Henry saying no deal would be possible. The other five appeared willing to consider a higher offer, leaving megasite opponents in the audience disappointed.
Wolgast said the lack of a business to use the megasite is part of her reason: “We could be voting to sell a school that’s going to be sitting next to vacant land for the foreseeable future, and that doesn’t make sense.”
But she also said the district shouldn’t consider the offer “free money.”
“This is our tax dollars,” she said, saying it wouldn’t be responsible to use tax funding to demolish the school without imminent purpose. “… We’re not getting a free school. You just paid for it.”
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under our Republication Guidelines. Questions? Email republishing@bridgemi.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.