Winni board addresses questions around sale of Union-Sanborn school

TILTON — Winnisquam Regional School Board Chair Sean Goodwin read into the record responses to questions about the sale of the Union-Sanborn School during the board’s Oct. 17 meeting. The questions had been posed by members of the public a month ago.

Several people, including state representatives, questioned the school board last month about its decision to take no action on a bid by a charter school to purchase the closed elementary school. Voters had authorized its sale at the March 2022 school district meeting.

Rep. Greg Hill (R-Northfield) asked why the school board had not engaged in good-faith negotiations with the charter school.

“This statute does not state that the district has to immediately negotiate with the charter school before it gets any third-party offer,” Goodwin responded on Monday. “New Hampshire RSA 194:61 sets forth a district’s obligations toward charter schools upon the sale of an unused facility and a process specifying that, when a school district offers the sale or lease of an unused school property to a party other than a charter school, the offer must be subject to a right of first refusal by any approved charter school. The law infers time on the market for this to take place. At some undefined point, the statute requires that when there is no other offer, the parties will have a duty to negotiate in good faith.”

Amy Robillard, who had initiated a petition in support of the sale to the charter school, had asked how the district district arrived at the $4.2 million valuation for the closed school.

“Which properties did you use to run comps on the school?” she asked.

Goodwin said, “This information is exempt and protected financial information under RSA 91-A:5-IV, which exempts ‘records pertaining to confidential commercial or financial information.’”

In response to questions about vandalism at the school, which had been partially answered on Sept. 19, Goodwin said arrangements have been made with Granite State Glass to replace the broken windows, and the glass is scheduled to arrive this week.

“The earliest it can be installed is Oct. 18,” Goodwin said. “In the meantime, the building is still completely secured.”

In response to another question, Goodwin said the school board’s goal is to sell the property for the best possible price.

“It has only been on the market for three months, two of which are the slowest for commercial property sales,” Goodwin said. “It makes sense to continue to list the property and work with our real estate agent in developing competitive offers.”

Finally, in response to Sen. Bob Giuda’s contention that the school board was in violation of state law, Goodwin said, “Good faith does not require that a school district deliberate on its offers and counter-offers in public.”

The district is required to make public its criteria for evaluating the offers, he said.

“Therefore, upon receiving competitive offers, the district will establish criteria to evaluate those offers and make that criteria public,” he said.

The board put together a “frequently asked questions” sheet about Union-Sanborn School and said it will be posted on the district’s website.