The meeting will take place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 12, in the district board room at 4410 Konocti Road.
Community members will be able to weigh in on whether the school campus should be closed, sold or leased, or if it should continue to remain in use by the district, which currently has a bus barn and continuation high school there, according to district Superintendent Dave McQueen.
McQueen emphasized that no decision will be made at the Jan. 12 meeting.
He said the meeting is to be devoted solely to discussing the property and no other topic.
Last March, as the district was crafting a financial plan to deal with its fiscal issues, the closure of Gard Street School was placed on a recovery list that included proposed layoffs, and service and facilities cuts.
The following month, Supervisor Rob Brown asked the Board of Supervisors to begin considering the purchase of the 7.44-acre school property for use as a campus for several county departments, which the board voted to do, as Lake County News has reported.
County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox put $995,000 aside in this year’s county budget for a possible purchase of the property.
Cox said Thursday that the county had the property appraised and a preliminary title report completed.
“There is some uncertainty about the actual ownership of some of that property,” he said.
He said the American Legion building and an athletic field on the property are among the areas where title isn’t clear.
“The county’s not going to buy anything that we can’t get a clean title to,” Cox said.
The school district was going to ask the appraiser to amend the appraisal to exclude some of the 7.44 acres, said Cox.
McQueen said the parcel the district will discuss Jan. 12 is 3.66 acres.
Cox said some county department heads have visited the property, and there have been discussions about leasing it instead of making a purchase. The county may be able to draw on state and federal revenues – not county general funds – for a lease.
“We’re just considering all options right now,” said Cox. “At this point we haven’t reached any conclusion.”
McQueen said that for the district to sell the property to the county or another buyer would take a lengthy process.
He said the discussion is not so much in response to the county’s interest but instead is about what the board concludes ultimately should be done with the land.
Once the district school board has community input to consider, it will come back at a future regular meeting to make a decision, McQueen said.
He said the district has formed a committee to make recommendations on the property. That group will take the input and use it in the process of creating a list of options to take to the district trustees.
The board could consider such options as early as next month, McQueen said.
While the school site currently is being used, McQueen said the district can consolidate its facilities to move the bus barn and continuation high school elsewhere should the school board decide the best option is to sell the property.
Gard Street School has been owned by the district for decades. McQueen couldn't say Wednesday just how many years the land had been in district control.
Cox said the county’s next steps depend on what the district wants to do. “And then we’ll determine whether that meets our needs.”
Community members who want more information about the meeting can contact Tami Barker at 707-279-1511 or
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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