According to TUSD Governing Board Mark Stegeman, the sale of the Wrightstown school property was highly questionable. He and fellow Board member Michael Hicks voted Tuesday night in opposition to the deal.
“I am not opposed to selling Wrightstown, because we never got a viable offer from a school, for that site. I voted against the current terms because we should have got a second appraisal, and the price does not adequately reflect the information in the first appraisal. The developer is getting a $350,000 allowance, mainly for demolition, but two independent vendor estimates of the demolition costs were each about $100,000,” said Dr. Stegeman.
Stegeman has been advocating for developing a systematic process for reviewing land transactions, including developing an approved list of appraisers. “I was never able to generate enough support to make that happen,” said Stegeman.
“The good ole boy network at its best. Pedicone is clearly the only one with the chutzpah to do whatever he wants,” said one district insider.
The purchase by Alta Vista Communities LLC, won board approval 3-2. Adelita Grijalva defended the sale saying that it had “gone through quite a vetting process.”
In its proposal, Alta Vista, say they would demolish all existing structures on the 9.2-acre property and replace them with luxury condos.
The distict issued a statement saying that the “funds generated from the sale can be used for programs that improve achievement, attract students and reduce dropouts.”
Rich Kronberg, an advocate for public schools said of the sale and statment, “Is the fact that TUSD felt the need to include this as a justification for selling the school to developers is an acknowledgment that much of the money it gets from taxpayers is not used for such purposes? The fact that the long term gain from leasing the land would have brought more revenue to TUSD than this sale raises a whole other set of questions.”