WINSLOW -- Former Winslow Squirrels -- and friends -- want ownership of the elementary school, gym and high school returned to the community.
Greenland Superintendent Larry Ben supports the effort, but the potential change in ownership comes with some legal hurdles, he said. The property has been a drain on the Greenland School District because the district continues to pay for property insurance, must keep the grounds mowed and the buildings are in disrepair.
Greenland School District
• Larry Ben, superintendent
• 849 children in kindergarten through 12th grade
• Annexed Winslow School District in 2004
• About 420 residents live in Winslow, according to a 2015 estimate by the U.S. Census
Source: Staff report
The old high school basement provides storage space for city departments. The main floor houses the Agnes M. Stockburger Library, run by Washington County, space for Winslow Community Center Association meetings and yoga classes.
The property is important to the community, said Jerry Bromley, a pastor who graduated from Winslow in 1961 and now is president of the nonprofit Winslow Community Center Association.
"Our aim is to get every single bit of it," he said of the school property. "We'd be pretty happy to get back even just the rock school. We're using it. It's an essential part of our ongoing ministry to the town."
A state consolidation law led Greenland to annex Winslow in 2004. Winslow's enrollment had dropped to 270 children, and the law required school districts with fewer than 350 pupils to merge with another district.
At the time, Winslow considered joining either the Greenland, West Fork or Mountainburg school districts, with the former Winslow School Board choosing Greenland, according to news reports of the Northwest Arkansas Times. Winslow High School closed in 2005 for seventh- through 12th-graders, and Winslow Elementary School followed in 2007.
A Winslow school sign still marks the entrance to the site, dotted with green roofs of an old administration building, elementary school and gym. The elementary school is boarded up but now lacks air-conditioning, wiring and lights.
A main corridor through the gymnasium is filled with leaves and cobwebs. The gymnasium walls and floor are marked with graffiti.
"Nothing's been done to it because it doesn't belong to us," Bromley said.
Bromley is not sure what it would cost to repair the buildings, but knows the community would need money and construction assistance, he said.
The recent push to return ownership of the buildings to the community started with the late Gary Simpson, Bromley said.
"Gary saw an opportunity where no one else saw an opportunity," Bromley said. "'We can get this school back. All we've got to do is try. I think he's going to be proved right."
Simpson and his wife, Beverly, a water clerk for Winslow, moved to the city in 2006. Her husband started the Winslow Community Center Association with a vision for the community to regain ownership of the school property. Their two grandchildren attend school in Greenland, but the children need a place to go in Winslow, she said. The school property would provide space for community functions and family reunions.
"It was sad to see them going to waste," Beverly Simpson said.
Simpson, who died in February, asked Bromley to be part of the Winslow Community Center Association, which started in 2014. When Simpson became ill, he asked Bromley to be president, and Bromley said he would take the job until the association succeeded or failed to get the school back.
Within the past few years, Bromley and other community members have retrieved framed pictures of the graduating classes from the 1950s to the last graduating Class of 2005. Bromley hung all the pictures in the main hallways of the high school.
Trophies have been returned to a school trophy case, he said. He also repaired the front door.
Ben supports giving the property back to the community but wants to ensure a transfer of ownership will be in line with the state Constitution. A May 26 opinion from Attorney General Leslie Rutledge's office states such a transfer would be permitted.
That leaves an issue over tax exempt bonds that are being paid, Ben said. Bonds were sold to investors who understood they were tax exempt, and the concern is whether transferring the property to the association would create a potential problem under IRS guidelines, Ben said.
The issue with the bonds would be resolved if ownership transferred to the city, Ben said.
Winslow Mayor Randy Jarnagan, a Squirrel from the class of 1977, said city officials have mixed emotions.
"The city would be interested in getting it but not keeping it," Jarnagan said. "Financially, we're limited to what we could take on."
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 421 people lived in Winslow in July 2015.
Keeping the old high school building open costs the city $15,000 a year, Jarnagan, said. The most recent legislative audit showed the city took in $87,423 in revenue and spent $71,418 in 2013. A separate fund for the city water department had operating revenue totaling $289,555 that year.
The thought of taking ownership of the property has existed for years, Jarnagan said. Ben is the third Greenland superintendent Jarnagan has worked with. All of the Greenland superintendents have cooperated with Winslow, but legal and financial issues have been sticking points on transferring the property to community ownership.
This latest effort is progressing, Jarnagan said. He plans to discuss the property with Ben and Bromley over the next week and will present an update to the City Council at its meeting June 13.
NW News on 06/06/2016