WESTMINSTER : Sale of Two Closed Schools Considered

The Board of Trustees for the Westminster School District is considering whether to sell two recently closed schools and a vacant portion of a currently open campus.

At its regular meeting last week, the board heard a report from its Property Advisory Committee about the potential sale of Virginia K. Boos and James Franklin elementary schools as well as a portion of the joint Finley Elementary/Dr. Russell I. Johnson Middle School campus.

The seven-member property committee, composed of parents, staff and community members, urged the district to declare all three as excess property.

Under the committee’s plan, Boos would be sold to developers for the construction of single-family homes, but only if a portion is reserved as a park site for the community, committee spokeswoman Cathy Goldman said.

The committee also proposed that Franklin school be retained for future use and be leased to generate income for the district.

The vacant lot adjacent to the Finley/Johnson campus should be kept for use by the community, especially for use by the local Little League sports program, she said.

The committee made its recommendations based on enrollment estimates predicting modest growth for the district, which can be easily accommodated by remaining school sites.

Further, the money generated by the sale or lease of the properties would be used to pay for $31 million in renovation projects districtwide, Goldman said.

The board will hold a public hearing on the recommendations at its July 7 meeting.