The Board of Education met on Jan. 14 and discussed many topic during the three hour and twenty minute meeting.

After approval of the agenda, the board opened up audience participation so members of the audience had an opportunity to address the board.

Former Washington principal Alan Park asked questions to the board about the selling of the Washington school property.

“Why are we in a hurry?,” Park said. “I know there’s a lot of things going on, but I just don’t quite understand. We found out about this 27 days ago and we’re going to possibly act on it tonight.”

Park urged the board to keep the interests of the community in mind when making the decision.

“Is this the best decision for our community?,” Park said. “Is this the best decision for our district? And is this the best decision for our kids?”

Superintendent John Thissen discussed that the district has no plans for the building and property and therefore it was decided to put it up for sale.

“The fact is, we don’t have to do anything with it,” Thissen said. “But I do know that we did talk about, again, months ago, not wanting to have a piece of property, a building, that would be vacant for a very long time.”

The board motioned to approved the sale of the Washington school property to OPG Land Development, LLC for the purchase price of $500,000 and $5,000 earnest money. The motion passed 5 to 2.

21afeyerherm@usd489.com