School Board weighs process to sell district buildings 

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV)-- At Tuesday’s St. Joseph Board of Education meeting, the conversation turned to concerns regarding the process of selling buildings that the district will no longer use and limiting what can be done with the buildings.

Board member Whitney Lanning kicked off a conversation about what to do with the Pershing and Field elementary school buildings as the district looks to sell them. She expressed concerned about potential buyers creating private and/or charter schools that would directly compete with the school district.

Assistant superintendent Robert Hedgecorth walked the board through three possible paths when selling district property. One option would be to sell directly to the city or county and negotiate a deal with them. Another path would be to put out a request for proposals (RFP), hire a broker, and list the properties on the market after assessing their value. The third option would be to simply sell to the highest bidder.  

Hedgcorth pointed out that going with the highest-bidder route would mean the district wouldn’t have much say in who ultimately buys the properties.  

“If you go with the RFP, and the broker, and list the property, you do have control of whether you want to sell to the interested party and if you go with option one, you would be dealing directly with the city,” Hedgecorth said.  

He recommended sticking with either option one or two because those approaches would help the district get fair value while still maintaining some control over how the properties are used. 

Lanning then asked her fellow board members if they’d be open to discussing option two further, to decide whether it’s worth pursuing.  

She followed that up with a motion to include restrictions in any sale — specifically, that the properties couldn’t be used in ways that would compete with the district, including operating a pre-K through 12 school. 

Board President LaTonya Williams seconded the motion, but it ultimately didn’t pass.

The vote failed 2–5, with Tom Richmond, Mike Moore, Jennifer Kerns, Kim Miller and Rhonda Chesney voting against it.