Pontiac school buildings are on sale

Though this may be painful to many, it is a reality that the Pontiac district has decided to shut down nine public schools and they will be offered for sale. However, it has also been learnt that the Pontiac district will also make a community-wide and gigantic effort to ensure the safety of the vacant buildings. What has made the district adopt this decision? Is it arbitrary? The enrollment in these schools is dwindling and this had made the district take decisions to close the schools next fall. These schools include Pontiac Central High School, a middle school, six elementaries along with an alternative school.

Speaking on this Doug Smith, Director of Economic Development for Oakland County, state,
“It becomes problematic on the day those schools become vacant, and the district must make sure they’re closed up tight right away.” “But I don’t think this is bad news.” “They can right-size the district to the number of students they have and it bodes well for future economic growth. Hopefully, they can get the schools off the books, but it must be a community-wide effort–the city working with the district to see what can be done.”

Though a large number of district officials refused to divulge any details over the fate of the buildings, some were found to be explicit. One of them was Shelley Yorke Rose, the Oakland County Intermediate School District spokeswoman. She was found definite and said that the district would take appropriate steps to declare the buildings as surplus. The basic intention would be to place them in the market for sale. She said in clear terms, “Then they would work with legal representatives and they must do assessments to determine the worth of the property, but there are no guidelines on how soon that must be done.”

Spokesperson of Detroit Public Schools Mattie Majors stated, “We’ve got about 53 vacant schools, and so far, at least 30 are for sale, and another 17 are leased. That leaves about six vacant buildings the district is still working on.”