County Attorney Glynn Rollins told the board the school made the offer through an October 25 letter sent to County Manager Tony Brown, offering $150,000 and giving the county a 5 percent deposit.
Halifax County economic development director Cathy Scott told the board the development commission has the building listed for sale and that LSA, which has plans to move to the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport, has a temporary lease.
The county is marketing the building for industrial and economic development purposes.
Brown said the county put some $900,000 into the building, which has a tax value of $1.6 million. “I'm not trying to persuade you.”
Scott said the school, which has a facility in Gaston, thinks of the endeavor as an economic development project as 100 teachers will be employed.
“In all fairness, it would be a boon,” Brown said. “They would do $4 million to $5 million of upgrades to make it useable for a school.”
Commissioner Rives Manning was concerned accepting the offer might cause a callback of money used to upgrade the building for industrial purposes.
Scott said the county has done its due diligence to make sure it has no liability to return any grant funds.
“I understand the what the tax value is,” Commissioner Vernon Bryant said. “It still doesn't tell us what the fair market value is.”
Scott said the last fair market sales appraisal of the building was $800,000.
“If we consider any offer we need to know what the building's worth,” board Chairman James Pierce said.
Manning said he didn't believe the school's offer came close to what the building's worth. “We'd be derelict to our citizens if we sold that piece of property for that price.”
The offer and the $7,500 deposit come as the school, in which its charter was approved by the state last month, looks to expand in the county.
“We are thrilled about expanding to Halifax County and providing additional educational options for the more than 400 students who are currently on the KIPP Gaston College Preparatory waiting list,” KIPP Executive Director Tammi Sutton said in the letter to Brown. “Over the past year, our board of directors has explored a variety of options for the new home of KIPP Halifax College Preparatory.”
Sutton said in the letter, “We are confident that a new school building would add tremendous value to the extended community. Not only would we eventually create 100 new full and part-time positions, but our staff and families would frequent the many local businesses in the area.”
Wrote Sutton: “In addition, by continuing to strengthen the educational options in Halifax County, a high-performing school would also help attract businesses and potential employees looking to relocate to our area. Finally, as we have seen with our campus in Gaston, our school has helped attract our alums back to the community. This year five members of our founding class returned home to teach on campus after graduating from the colleges of their choice. By locating in Littleton, we hope to build on the work we have done in Gaston and add another source of pride to the citizens of Halifax County.”
The school, Sutton said, recognizes the work needed to turn the plant into a school, hence the $150,000 offer. “We anticipate needing to invest $4 million to $5 million into transforming the current factory into a full kindergarten through eighth (grade school). Because North Carolina charter schools do not receive any federal, state or local money for capital expenses, we must look for and find creative funding options. As a result, we will be forced to operate as frugally as possible in order to be able to afford the necessary improvements. We are confident though that those additions we will make a valuable contribution to the town of Littleton and Halifax County.”
