A vote from the Columbus Board of Education last week has cleared the way for the district to sell five of its properties, including the historic Beck Street School near German Village.
“We expect to begin the sales process sometime in February,” said Scott Wortman, Chief Communications Officer for Columbus City Schools (CCS). “Per statute, these buildings must first be offered to high-performing charter schools.”
If no qualified charter school is interested, the schools would be put up for auction, a process the district has been through before. In 2017, CCS held two separate auctions for a total of six properties, including the former Open Air School, the former Fifth Avenue Elementary and the Maennerchor property on South High Street.
CCS provided the following information about the five buildings, including the most recent appraisal price for each:
BECK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING – located at 387 E. Beck St., closed in 2017, appraised in January 2020 for $1.7 million.
DOUGLAS ALTERNATIVE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING – located at 51 S. Douglas St., closed in 2013, appraised in May 2019 for $1.65 million.
STARLING MIDDLE SCHOOL BUILDING – located at 120 S. Central Ave., closed in 2013, appraised in March 2019 for $1.23 million.
CLEARBROOK MIDDLE SCHOOL BUILDING – located at 31 N. 17th St., closed as a school in 2013 but has been used for operations training and storage since then. Appraised in January 2020 for $975,000.
STOCKBRIDGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL BUILDING – located at 3350 S. Champion Ave., closed in 2006, appraised in January 2019 for $340,000.
The former Beck Elementary School building made Columbus Landmarks’ 2019 Most Endangered list, and the former Starling Middle School building, in Franklinton, is also over a hundred years old and rich with historic details.