The Alamance-Burlington school board has been asked to consider selling two acres of land behind Hillcrest Elementary School to The Burlington School, which is located directly beside the elementary school in Burlington.
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ABSS officials initially said they had “no idea” of the details concerning a potential real estate transaction before the motion to enter into closed session was read aloud. There are several exceptions to North Carolina’s Open Meetings Law under which public bodies may enter into closed session, and the school board customarily does so at the end of each bimonthly meeting to discuss “confidential personnel matters” and/or to consult with their attorney.
However, the motion for the school board’s closed session on Tuesday contained an additional item to be discussed behind closed doors: the potential acquisition of property.
As several board members began to file behind closed doors – to a conference room beside the auditorium at Central Office where school board members usually hold their closed session –an Alamance News reporter objected.
The newspaper insisted, to ABSS superintendent Dr. Aaron Fleming and school board chairman Sandy Ellington-Graves, that court precedent – in fact, a case brought by this newspaper more than two decades ago – requires the disclosure of the location of property being considered for acquisition, as well as the owner of the property, and the purpose for which the property is being considered – in the open meeting, prior to entering into a closed session.
After the newspaper repeated its objection, school board attorney Adam Mitchell appeared to check his notes and told the newspaper, along with Fleming and Ellington-Graves, that the topic on the closed session agenda actually pertained to a potential sale of school property, which he acknowledge, “is not appropriate for closed session.” As they turned toward the conference room, Fleming, Ellington-Graves, and Mitchell assured the newspaper that there would be no discussion in closed session about the potential sale of ABSS property.
An hour later, the school school board reconvened the open portion of Tuesday afternoon’s work session, prompting Mitchell to announce, “on the record,” that there had been no discussion in closed session about any property sale or acquisition.
“As the realtor on this board, I want to say, I had nothing to do with any of that,” Ellington-Graves added.
Potential property acquisition added at last minute to closed session agenda – then hastily removed
For her part, Ellington-Graves – who customarily helps set the agendas for each school board meeting along with the superintendent and the board’s vice chairman, Donna Westbrooks – told the newspaper during a subsequent phone interview Tuesday afternoon that she “didn’t realize that the motion to enter into closed session referenced any type of real estate” matter until the motion was read aloud at 1:18 p.m. that afternoon.
“I was a little surprised because I didn’t know anything about it,” Ellington-Graves told the newspaper in the interview. “It was not [part of the original] motion from the agenda meeting. I was not aware we had been approached about anything regarding real estate until you questioned it.”
Based on attorney Mitchell’s description, the last-minute addition to the agenda contained a typographical error, describing one of the purposes for the closed session as “to instruct the board’s negotiating agents” – in this case, the attorney – on the position to be taken in “negotiating the price and other terms of a contract or proposed contract for the acquisition of real property by purchase, option, exchange, or lease.”
The Alamance News has since discovered that school board member Dan Ingle had discussed a possible sale – rather than an acquisition – of property behind Hillcrest Elementary School with a member of the board of trustees for The Burlington School.
Ingle reluctantly revealed his conversation with the board member from The Burlington School – and the location of the property being considered – during a phone interview Wednesday morning.
Ingle said that he intended to tell his contact at The Burlington School to get in touch with the superintendent and follow the proper procedures from there. “It was all innocent,” he said, adding that any further conversations about the topic will follow the chain of command within ABSS before the board hears a formal presentation.
Ingle, who described the two-acre parcel being considered for a possible sale as a “vacant, wooded” area behind Hillcrest Elementary School, also acknowledged that the board would need to determine whether ABSS might need that land in the future, such as for an expansion.
“I passed it to the superintendent and the attorney, and that’s it for me at this point,” Ingle said. He told the newspaper that a possible purchase price hasn’t been floated yet.
The Burlington School looking to expand its soccer field
Ronnie Wall, who is the head of school for The Burlington School, confirmed for the newspaper in an interview Wednesday afternoon that the board of trustees for his school has discussed the possibility of purchasing two acres of land behind Hillcrest Elementary School that would be used to expand an existing soccer field at the private school to regulation size.
“It would be a big use for The Burlington School for trying to lay out a soccer field,” Wall explained in an interview. “It’s really a future game plan our board is looking to do so our team can do home games instead of going to Springwood Park [off Springwood Church Road in Burlington].”
The Burlington School and Hillcrest Elementary School are situated next to each other. “Our soccer field runs into their back playing fields [at Hillcrest],” Wall elaborated in the interview.
“I think our next step,” Wall added, “would be maybe meeting with the new superintendent to get direction, to talk about the possibility, and then go through the proper protocols to get that done.”
Wall emphasized, “We’re talking about [the] future. There is no timeline for meeting with the superintendent at this point; the purpose is for the expansion; and that was the purpose of the ask for the two acres. I have not spoken to anyone from ABSS about this.”
Statutory guidelines for disposition of school property
Any potential sale of school-owned property is governed under a separate state law, which outlines one of five methods for the disposition of school property: A negotiation and sale; an advertisement for sealed bids; a negotiated offer, advertisement, and upset bid process; public auction; and an exchange.
ABSS had been previously approached by a developer about selling a two-acre tract of land along N.C. Highway 49, near Pleasant Grove Elementary School, for $100,000 in May 2014. The initial offer of $100,000 in 2014 came from Vanguard Property Group, a developer representing Dollar General.
A second developer, Glandon Forest Equity, which has also built several Dollar General stores, subsequently submitted a letter of intent to purchase five acres, described at the time as a larger portion of the same property off N.C. 49 near Pleasant Grove Elementary School, for $190,000, in early 2015.
Vanguard ultimately withdrew its offer after an engineering analysis revealed that the land is within a watershed subject to numerous restrictions and likely to have soil contamination. School board members never revisited, or publicly voted to accept, the offer from Glandon Forest Equity during any subsequent meeting.
A separate provision in the state’s public education laws requires the proceeds from any sale of school property to be applied to any outstanding bond debt or toward capital outlays.
The former Burlington city school system acquired the land at 1714 West Davis Street, where Hillcrest Elementary sits, for $76,750 from Ralph Harris, Inc. in December 1977, according to Alamance County’s Register of Deeds. The deed described the property as adjoining what was then-known as Burlington Day School, which later expanded and became The Burlington School.
Alamance County tax records show that the property spans 18.44 acres. The 32,480-square foot Hillcrest Elementary School was built in 1993, according to the county’s tax records, which list the latest assessed value for the land and the school at $9.8 million.
Ralph Harris, Inc. had been a Burlington-based construction company that opened in 1965 and closed in 2001, according to the Secretary of State’s office.
