The school closed in 2001 and was demolished about seven years later. Today, the 1.63-acre property is a grassy field.
As required under Ohio law, Dayton Public Schools in early August offered the property to community schools and college-preparatory boarding schools in the district, which get 60 days to respond.
After that, the school district can send the property to public auction or sell it to local subdivisions, taxing authorities, park districts, publicly funded universities, libraries or nonprofit institutions of public education.
“The next step is the school district is free to offer it for sale to either the city or the port authority or to auction or to private businesses,” said Adil Baguirov, president of the Dayton Public Schools Board of Education.
The property sits in a burgeoning part of downtown near some major employers, community anchors and recent housing and commercial development projects.
In letters dated Aug. 2, the legal counsel of the Dayton Public Schools issued official notice that the Board of Education intends to sell the former site of Patterson Co-op High School.
In compliance with state law, notices were mailed to the governing authorities of community schools and the board of trustees of college-preparatory boarding schools located within the district. A couple of schools contacted by this newspaper said they received notices.
In Ohio, charter and college-prep schools are given a “right of first refusal” when a school district is selling a building or leasing space, according to the Ohio School Boards Association.
School districts must offer properties to these schools at a price no higher than the appraised fair market value, which in the case of the Patterson Co-op site is $710,000, according to the district. The county auditor’s valuation of the three parcels is about $572,000.
The former high school site is one of about 28 unused properties the district owns and wants to unload, Baguirov said.
“We have 28 properties and don’t need all of them,” Baguirov said.
However, the Patterson Co-op site is likely the most attractive of the properties because of its location, he said.
The property is within a couple of blocks of RiverScape MetroPark, the new Dayton Metro Library, the Water Street District, the theater district and some major employment centers.
Dayton Public Schools is one of the poorest districts in the state and hopefully the school board can get a decent return on the property, Baguirov said.
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