The Akron Legal News

Educators support bill that would offer property to universities

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 8, 2012

Akron educators are backing a House bill that would require a school district to offer the right of first refusal for district property to state universities.

Luis Proenza, University of Akron president, and David W. James, Akron Public Schools superintendent, recently testified before the House Education committee in support of House Bill 381.

Under the proposed legislation, if a school district board decides to dispose of property, the board would have to offer the right of first refusal for the purchase of the land to any of the 14 state universities with a main campus or branch campus within the school district’s territory.

HB 381 is sponsored by Rep. Lynn Slaby, R-Copley.

James said the bill represents a plan to make effective use of decommissioned public school property.

“We believe that this unique opportunity, bridging the K-12 system and higher education together, will generate a synergy resulting in our graduates having a seamless transition to the post-secondary world.”

James went on to reference the school district pairing with the University of Akron for two initiatives: the Akron Early College High School and the National Inventors Hall of Fame STEM Middle School.

“In my experience, I recognize that we need a well-educated workforce for our great state of Ohio to be a competitive player in our economy,” he said.

“As we move to more rigorous college and career readiness standards, we must also remove the barriers that prevent our students from being successful.”

Proenza said enacting HB 381 would open up new opportunities for collaboration between public schools and public universities.

“In this era of scarce resources, it is incumbent upon us to develop creative ways to make productive use of public property,” he said, adding that he believes the bill is good public policy for the entire state.

“... This is a unique opportunity to bring K-12 and higher education together to generate better prepared college students and increase the number of Ohio’s college graduates.”

Proenza said each of the presidents at Ohio’s public universities are in support of HB 381.

Under current Ohio law, school districts wanting to dispose of property worth more than $10,000 are required to first offer the land to start-up community schools located within the district’s territory at a price that doesn’t exceed the property’s appraised fair market value.

If no community school is interested in buying the property, a board can then sell the land through a public auction. If a district tries to sell a piece of land at a public auction at least once without success, the property can then be sold privately.

In its aim to revamp state law to give the right of first refusal to public universities, HB 381 states the board could offer the property for a price no higher than the land’s appraised fair market value or exchange the property, specifically in an “as is” condition, in return for agreed-upon, in-kind services, educational programs or other assistance provided by the university to the school district.

The proposal states that if a university does not accept either offer, or if an agreement is not reached between the district and university, within 60 days after the offer is made, the district would be mandated to offer the land to applicable community schools.

HB 381 would not apply to school districts that don’t have a public university located within its territory.

The bill’s provisions would apply to the University of Akron, Bowling Green State University, Central State University, the University of Cincinnati, Cleveland State University, Kent State University, Miami University, Ohio University, Ohio State University, Shawnee State University, the University of Toledo, Wright State University, Youngstown State University and the Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Slaby said HB 381 is designed to provide an “immediate opportunity and incentive” for Ohio’s public schools and universities.

“It is imperative to find and support creative ways to help our public schools to properly prepare students for college,” he said, noting that the legislature needs to help universities become active partners and players in that process.

“Passage of HB 381 will come at no cost to the state and will provide local schools with cost-effective solutions in the disposal of property.”

HB 381 is co-sponsored by Reps. Courtney Combs, R-Fairfield, Robert Hackett, R-London, Tom Letson, D-Warren, Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, and Louis Terhar, R-Cincinnati.

The bill has yet to be scheduled for a third hearing.

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