LOCAL

Neenah schools don't plan to sell Pendleton Road property to pay for building improvements

Duke Behnke
Post Crescent
The Neenah Joint School District has offices at 410 S. Commercial St. in Neenah.

Question: The Neenah school district owns land on Pendleton Road that was purchased years ago for an elementary school, but no school was built or is planned to be built there. Why is the school district hanging onto the property? Couldn’t it be sold to help pay for the referendum project?

Answer: The school district's decision-makers believe the 17-acre property on Pendleton Road south of Breezewood Lane still has potential for an elementary school because of residential growth on Neenah's southwest side.

"It's true there are no current plans to build a school on that site," communications manager Jim Strick said, "but the district would like to keep it as an option when it reviews its elementary school structure in future years."

The school district has a two-phase building plan, known as Pathway 5, to reconfigure and modernize its facilities.

The first phase calls for spending $181.7 million, including $157 million to construct a new high school on a 217-acre property south of Winchester Road and east of Clayton Avenue in the town of Neenah. The existing high school on Tullar Road would become an intermediate school for grades 5-6 and a middle school for grades 7-8.

Voters will decide in an April 7 referendum whether to authorize the district to borrow $114.9 million to help pay for the first phase.

The second phase concerns Neenah's elementary schools and ranges in cost from $53.3 million to $83.3 million. The district hasn't determined the timing and scope of the second phase, including whether any elementary schools would be closed.

RELATED: Neenah's $182M school building plan includes costs beyond referendum

WATCHDOG Q&A: Duke Behnke answers your questions

The school district bought the Pendleton property in 1999 for $170,000.

It is one of four undeveloped properties owned by the district. The others are a 57-acre site at the southwest corner of Irish Road and American Drive in Fox Crossing, a 15-acre site at the northeast corner of Jacobsen Road and Prairie Lake Circle in Fox Crossing, and a nine-acre site near Keating Park in the town of Neenah.

None of the properties is being sold to help offset the cost of the building plan.

The district intends to sell the 57-acre Irish Road/American Drive property to cover the $3.4 million cost of acquiring the Winchester Road/Clayton Avenue property, but Andrew Thorson, assistant district administrator of business services, said those transactions are "completely independent of the referendum."

The Neenah Joint School District is proceeding with the $3.4 million purchase of a 217-acre property south of Winchester Road and east of Clayton Avenue in the town of Neenah. An April 7 referendum will ask voters to approve borrowing $114.9 million to help pay for the construction of a $157 million high school on the site.

Watchdog Q&A

Post-Crescent reporter Duke Behnke answers your questions about local government. Send questions to dbehnke@gannett.com or call him at 920-993-7176.