School board shouldn't gamble on old school with taxpayer money

The quickest way for The Center Elementary property to come on the tax rolls is for the School District to step aside and let the property revert back to the owners. The school district is ill equipped to buy and sell property.

The property will still be sold to private; it just doesn’t need to go through the hands of the school board. It is shameful for them to consider this action (spending taxpayer money) on a gamble. All of the reasons why the school couldn’t remodel the Center Elementary building are reasons why the school board should not buy the property.

This is not a risk-free endeavor for the school district and makes the taxpayer liable for all of the fixes and problems that the school has. The school board has scant resources now, imagine what it will be like having to maintain the Center Elementary building, fix it up with taxpayer money to ready it for sale, attorney fees, consultant fees, hazardous abatement fees, etc.

Instead of purchasing the property, the school district should focus on its mission, which is to educate the students of this district, which, according to the State of Washington it is still failing.

The Chamber is correct, economic development is vital to this community and I champion that; however, economic development is not through the taxpayers of the local school district. The taxpayers of this district need to remind the school board of their mission: education, not economic development.

The best thing the school board can do is walk away from Center Elementary; it costs nothing.

Chris Christopherson