FORT SMITH -- The Future School of Fort Smith has only 12 students enrolled so far, but it has a home.
City directors voted Tuesday to sell the former Girls Inc. building at 622 N. Seventh St. to a real estate agent who said he will lease it to Fort Smith's first charter school for grades 10, 11 and 12.
The resolution passed 5-2. City Directors George Catsavis and Tracy Pennartz opposed the resolution.
Rodney Ghan, as Northwest Development Holdings LLC, submitted an unsolicited proposal earlier this month to buy the building for $110,000, which he said reflected the price the city paid plus closing costs. The city bought it three years ago for $107,500 in hopes of someday renovating it into a community center.
Since then, a memorandum from acting City Administrator Jeff Dingman said, the city has spent $4,860 in roof and drainage repair and $25,225 on architectural plans.
According to the plans, it would cost $1.5 million to renovate the building. The cost estimate pushed back the project to at least 2021, Dingman's memo said.
Pennartz said the building should be sold through the open bid process or a counteroffer should be made to recover the city's investment in the building.
Director Keith Lau said the city's spending on the building added no value to it and that utility bills and maintenance cost $2,000 a month. The city should sell it to Ghan for what he offered and move on, Lau said.
Director Andre Good unsuccessfully proposed an amendment to sell the building for $52,000, less than half the offered price, citing the opportunity to invest in the education of the city's children.
Ghan said he was interested in the Future School moving into the building because it would enhance downtown Fort Smith five blocks south. Ghan is on the Fort Smith Central Business Improvement District board of directors.
Future School founder and superintendent Trish Flanagan said before Tuesday's meeting that Ghan agreed to lease the property to the school at a minimal rate for three years or until it was paid off. Ghan also will renovate the building at cost, which Flanagan said the school will pay for.
Initially, Ghan said, renovation will focus on the building's gymnasium, restrooms and administrative offices, with further renovations over the following two years. The school ultimately will have 18 classrooms for the anticipated 450 students, he said -- six classrooms for each grade.
Ghan told directors that until the building is ready to be occupied, students and staff will occupy a 9,800-square-foot modular building that will be erected on the grounds if the Belle Grove Historic District allows the modular building in the district for five years.
Ghan said he also will have to get approval from the city to open a school at that location.
Flanagan said the Future School board of directors is trying to raise money by applying for government grants and soliciting local donations. She said the school will receive $6,600 in state funding for each student enrolled.
She said the school's board recently was turned down for a $400,000 federal grant.
As of Tuesday, Flanagan said, Future School, which was approved by the Arkansas Board of Education in November, had enrolled 12 students over the Internet. School officials soon will begin canvassing Fort Smith and surrounding communities to recruit 10th-graders for the start of fall classes in August.
If more than the maximum of 150 sign up to enroll, she said, the students will be chosen by lottery.
The initial staff, she said, will consist of 10 members. It will include seven teachers -- one each for math, science, social studies, English and technology, plus an online learning center director and a special education director.
The school plans to add one grade each year, with each grade having a maximum of 150 students.
Flanagan has said the school will be innovative, providing students with individualized education plans, workplace experience and advisers who will follow them throughout their high school career.
State Desk on 01/23/2016