Prospective Wilson school buyers answer neighbors' questions after heated board meeting
Board members expressed concern the neighbors are still not happy after the proposed buyers promise to provide child care, maintain historic exterior
Prospective Wilson school buyers answer neighbors' questions after heated board meeting Board members expressed concern the neighbors are still not happy after the proposed buyers promise to provide child care, maintain historic exterior Check out this story on sctimes.com: https://www.sctimes.com/story/news/local/2019/06/13/wilson-school-buyer-prospects-st-cloud-residents-board-meeting/1436369001/
Jenny Berg, Saint Cloud Times Published 6:11 p.m. CT June 13, 2019
The St. Cloud school district has announced plans to sell the former Wilson school building. It is pictured Thursday, March 7. (Photo: Dave Schwarz, dschwarz@stcloudtimes.com)
WAITE PARK — Following a heated conversation at last week's school board meeting regarding the possible future owners of Wilson school — a meeting where one resident was removed after repeatedly interrupting the meeting — the prospective buyers answered questions about their plans for the site Thursday at the board finance meeting.
"That was uncalled for," said Al Dahlgren, school board member, of the conduct at the board meeting last week, which caused board members to take a 25-minute recess during the discussion about prospective buyers.
St. Cloud school district received five offers for the property, which has been empty since child-care provider Little Saints Academy vacated the building in November.
At the May 30 finance committee meeting, members agreed to recommend the school board approve the purchase agreement from Rice-based Five Points Properties for $210,000 — the highest of the offers.
Steve Feneis of Granite City Real Estate is the district's real estate agent. He said Five Points Properties plans sell the property on a contract-for-deed to a business that would provide child care and early childhood education.
Mohamed Farah and Tohow Siyad plan to purchase the property from Five Points Properties. Both have businesses in the community: Farah is president and owner of Waite Park-based KAAH Transportation and owner of St. Cloud-based Priority Express Trucks. Siyad is president and owner of St. Cloud-based National Home Health Care Transportation.
Siyad also serves on boards for CentraCare Health, Central Minnesota Community Foundation and St. Cloud's Economic Development Authority.
At the June 5 board meeting, board members suggested administration ask the prospective owners more about their intended uses for the building and vacant lots across Eighth Avenue North. Board members expressed concerns about the contract-for-deed process and the possibility of absentee landlords.
Farah and Siyad said Thursday they plan to have the child care center open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays and closed on the weekends.
Farah said he isn't yet certain how many students will be enrolled, but said the child care center will be open for all community members. They plan to call the center Al Hidaya Academy, Farah said.
The prospective owners said they have no intentions of changing the historical exterior of the building or rezoning any of the properties.
In the future, the green space could be sold for single-family houses, which would not require rezoning; any zoning changes for other uses would need to be approved by the city.
"I've lived in this community for 15 years," Siyad said. "We will work with the neighborhood."
The board has mulled whether to sell the former school, built in 1931, for years, and neighbors have been vocal about wanting something that will fit the character of the neighborhood.
The district closed Wilson, which had been home to the district's area learning center, in 2010 as a cost-saving measure. Little Saints Academy moved into Wilson in 2011.
On Thursday, board members Dahlgren, Les Green and Monica Segura-Schwartz — as well as finance committee member Scott Andreasen — recommended the board approve selling the property to Five Points Properties at an upcoming meeting.
Some residents who spoke at the June 5 board meeting, Dahlgren said, said the district wasn't being transparent.
"Every single time we've had a meeting, it's been an open meeting," he said Thursday. "... We've gone above and beyond that in specifically finding out who wanted to attend and asking them to be put on to a special list so we could send out an invitation to each of the meetings we have had."
More so, the prospective purchasers fit what Northside-Hester Park Neighborhood residents have conveyed to board members in recent years: They plan to keep the building as child care center, keep the historical character of the building and keep the green space.
The purchaser also has financing in place for the building and improvements, Dahlgren said.
"Beyond that, we're bringing them in to ask them questions about the business that's going in there but federal law and just good human nature and practice says that we don't ask questions when we're determining who we're going to put in there about someone's race, about someone's sex, about someone's religion, about someone's sexual orientation or about someone's age," Dahlgren said. "Those are all federally protected things that we can't take into consideration and won't take into consideration."
And by selling the property for market price, Dahlgren said, the district is meeting its fiduciary duty.
In September, the board rejected a letter of intent from Little Saints Academy for $10,000 to purchase the building, but asked Superintendent Willie Jett to continue negotiations. Little Saints Academy's owners closed the St. Cloud campus in November.
Green said he too supports letting people exercise their rights to open a private business in a free enterprise economy that is nondiscriminatory.
"It's what America was built on," Green said.
Segura-Schwartz said she will also support approving the purchase agreement.
"I wish you luck and I really hope the neighborhood welcomes you," she said.
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