CROTHERSVILLE — Receiving a rare opportunity to purchase land, Crothersville Community School Corp. pounced on it.
The school property is landlocked, so when Superintendent Chrystal Street was approached to buy nearby property, she began the process.
During a Nov. 13 meeting, the board of school trustees unanimously approved a resolution to purchase the Crothersville Christian Church building and allow Street to move forward with the necessary paperwork.
She also is pursuing the purchase of four parcels just east of the church.
While she has some ideas for both properties, Street is going to work with the board and stakeholders to determine the best uses.
“I’m just waiting on a little piece and I’m ready to buy,” she recently said. “Everybody I’ve worked with has been really, really good, and we’re super excited about the opportunity. We cannot wait.”
The church building at 200 N. Preston St. sits on two parcels totaling 0.40 acres. The church also owns the parking lot across Oak Street, and it’s frequently used for school activities.
“A member of the church approached me. Congregations are getting smaller; therefore, they gave us first shot of being able to purchase it,” Street said. “I felt like immediately, that’s what the board would want to do, and they were very willing to allow us to purchase that.”
Street said there are unlimited possibilities for the church building.
“In order to have kids in that building over there, there are some renovations and some things that we want to make sure that’s right, but it’s an excellent space, and we could use it for a number of things,” she said.
“A possibility is before- and after-school care, which would be awesome. There are several classrooms in there,” she said. “I would like to see it possibly become a career and technical center so we could offer some opportunities for our kids that they wouldn’t have otherwise, but there’s a lot of board discussion that will go into that.”
The four parcels between Bard and Oak streets totaling 1 acre are owned by Joseph S. Lucas. One parcel contains a home.
“I’m not sure what we’ll use for that,” Street said. “It could be storage. We have a shop class. It could be something maybe they might want to use. We could rent it out if we wanted to. It could become a parking lot. I don’t know.”
The school hopes to host a sectional for basketball and volleyball, and additional parking could help accommodate that, Street said.
“We want to make things as accessible as we can for the public,” she said. “We take pride in the people who come to our events, and we’re very proud of our building, so when we have visitors and things like that, yes, they can park (in the current parking lots), but if we can make it just a little bit closer for some people, and with the handicap parking on the street now, that takes some spots that we did have before, so it kind of opens it up a little bit.”
Street has to have the properties appraised and take the average of the two appraisals to make an offer. She estimates the total cost for the property purchases to be around $200,000.
If those are approved, then it will be up to officials to determine the best course of action for the properties.
“Crothersville schools have a very good board, and I know in my heart that they want to do what’s best for kids,” Street said. “I feel like we have such a collaborative effort right now. They are willing to take input from teachers, I’m willing to take input from our stakeholders and they have some ideas of their own, so I think all of us together, we’re going to determine what’s best.”