Vestavia BOE to make offer to purchase Gresham Elementary for $6.75 million
The Vestavia Hills Board of Education is officially taking the next step to buy another property — Gresham Elementary School.
During a specially called meeting on Oct. 4, Interim Superintendent Charles Mason made a recommendation for school board attorney Patrick Boone to write an offer to purchase Gresham Elementary School and its 27 acres of property from the Jefferson County Board of Education.
Gresham Elementary School is located off Dolly Ridge Road on the opposite side of U.S. 280 from Cahaba Heights and serves as a K-5 school with about 420 students and 50 teachers, according to its website.
Mason’s recommendation followed a 45-minute executive session regarding the potential purchase of real estate.
The purchase would be contingent on a few terms, provisions and conditions, which Mason listed during his recommendation. The purchase price would be $6,750,000, which is the appraised value of the property, and the sale of the property would be closed “as soon as it is practicable following approval by the United States District Court and the Jefferson County Board of Education desegregation case,” Mason said.
Jefferson County would be able to use the school through the 2018-19 school year, but the Vestavia Hills school board would have the right to begin construction during that time “if it should choose to do so.”
“I want to emphasize the, ‘If it should choose to do so,’” Mason said. “I have not made a recommendation. I’m not prepared to make a recommendation at this time on what use, if any, we may make of the Gresham School property, but I think it’s important that we reserve that option as a part of the sales track.”
The Vestavia School Board would also be able to improve and use fields on the property subsequent to closing, Mason said.
All school board members voted in favor of Mason’s recommendation.
The potential purchase of Gresham Elementary came before the school board in August, when then-Superintendent Sheila Phillips recommended for Boone to draft and execute a non-binding letter of intent to purchase the property. During that meeting, Phillips said she felt that purchasing the property would be an advantage to the school system.
Following the school board’s vote, Cahaba Heights resident Patrick Dewees said he opposed the purchase of Gresham School.
“I think the money should be dedicated towards eventually funding a second high school, one in the area I live in. It does not have to be the biggest school in the world,” he said, adding that smaller schools are sometimes easier to navigate socially and physically for some students.
No one else spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting, and it was adjourned.