The Unknown Fate of Irving School

by Alden Nellis
July 23, 2010

The Cleburne ISD Board of Trustees considered disposition of the original Irving Elementary Campus at their regular meeting Monday night, July 19.

They had received a letter from lawyer Bobby Padgett of Henslee Schwartz outlining three options and restrictions available to them – sell, lease or donate the property. Padgett’s letter states that sale or lease of the property was not practical at this point so they should look at donating the property.

After public input and an hour in closed session with Padgett, the Board instructed Superintendent Dr. Ronny Beard to try first to sell or lease the property.

CISD recently had Irving and the Brown Gym appraised. The gym was appraised at about $350,000 and they are in the process of selling it to the County for $225,000. Irving was appraised for nearly $600,000. Even if it is not sellable for the appraised value, $400,000 to $600,000 is too much taxpayer property to gift.

Irving has been controversial since the Bond election of 2004. After the first attempt to pass that bond failed, then-superintendent Robert Damron and the Board (now mostly different people) promised residents in the Irving neighborhood that they would find another use for the campus and they would not allow “demolition by neglect.” That promise got them enough votes to barely pass the bond on the second try.

As soon as the bond passed, then-superintendent Damron vowed in public after a school board meeting that he would “board the **** building up and let it rot.”

Not only has CISD allowed external deterioration, but they allowed vandals to break in and trash the inside. CISD IS allowing demolition by neglect. So much for CISD promises.

The organization that hoped to get Irving donated to them, Teen Challenge (a rehab organization), was represented at the Board meeting by three people. After the Board instructed Dr. Beard to try to sell or lease the building instead of donating it, they walked out in a huff, commenting about the slim chance the Board has of selling the property.

So the fate of the original Irving Campus hangs in the balance. My friend Harold Gentry has an excellent suggestion. He says CISD should sell the Administration Building on Ridgeway, worth $4 to 5 million, and move the Admin operation to the original Irving Campus.

By selling the Admin building, CISD could use half the proceeds to renovate as much of the Irving Campus as they need and use the other half of the money to help with their budget crunch. This would also help them get out of the real estate business – a goal Dr. Beard recently expressed. (CISD currently leases out part of the Admin building to several businesses.)

To see how to convert Irving to Admin offices, I suggest they send the Executive Director of District Operations, Gary Buckingham, to Salado, Texas. Salado ISD converted a campus similar to Irving in age and construction. It now houses school offices and civic organizations, including the Chamber of Commerce. The auxiliary buildings house the scouts, art guild, and other organizations.

At any rate, CISD does not need to be gifting $600,000 of taxpayer property to anyone. Taxpayers, including me, would not understand how the cash-strapped CISD could afford such luxury.