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The Chambers County School Board discussed options for selling some of the unused school buildings to their respective cities during its work session on Friday.

Since consolidation happened, John P. Powell Middle School and Five Points Elementary School buildings have sat mostly unused, only as storage for school board surplus items.

Both the cities of LaFayette and Five Points, where the schools are located, cities have expressed interest in taking over ownership of them.

Superintendent Dr. Sharon Weldon told the school board that she has looked into in-kind services that the city of LaFayette and the city of Five Points have done that could go toward the payment of the buildings.

In-kind services relate to services that the municipalities have provided to the school board without compensation such as lawn maintenance, road paving and grading, building maintenance and minor repairs.

Weldon said the school board cannot just transfer the buildings over to another governmental agency.

They had to be assessed for their fair market value or tax-assessed value. From there, the board can come to an agreement with the municipality, taking into consideration things like in-kind contributions.

Weldon said both cities have provided in-kind services to the school board.

One board member asked about the potential of leasing the buildings for city use, rather than selling them.

Weldon’s response was that it is not financially responsible to hold on to empty buildings for which the school board is still paying for power, insurance and maintenance.

“I just think that we can better use our money taking care of the buildings where we have students,” Weldon said.

Weldon said they went back through the deeds to look for a reverter clause in them, which would revert ownership of the property back to the original granter.

Neither the former J.P. Powell building or the Five Points building had the clause.

The city of Five Points recently used the old school building as a tornado shelter during the weekend’s severe weather and Tornado Warning.

They did some maintenance work on the building to get it into shape for these events.

In 2022, the John P. Powell Middle School site was accepted to the Alabama Historical Landmark registry for its history as the Chambers County Training School. CCTS was one of the earliest schools for Black students in the county. Its doors opened in 1919 after a private citizen bought and donated the land to the school district.

Weldon assured the board that the historic listing wouldwill not impact the sale of the building.