There are multiple buyers reportedly lined up for the shuttered Inverness Elementary School building, but the school district appears to be in no hurry to sell.
Delta Health Alliance is one of the prospective buyers, but the district’s delay will likely result in the organization going elsewhere for a project that may have brought at least a $1 million investment and almost 50 jobs to the south Sunflower County community.
“They are working on a pretty tight timeline, according to them,” Sunflower County Consolidated School District Superintendent Dr. Miskia Davis told The Enterprise-Tocsin this week. “They have a couple of million dollars they want to utilize to renovate that building…They needed to know something by February 15, so the board’s response is that we’ve had more than just Delta Health Alliance interested in that building, and to be fair to everyone, we’re going to listen to the persons who have asked for the purchase of that building, listen to their proposals, and take that into consideration.”
DHA board member Walton Gresham told The E-T this week the Stoneville-based organization may have ended up putting more than $1 million into the facility, if the purchase had gone through, potentially bringing Head Start students, playground equipment and after school workforce development programs for adults to the building.
“This is the logical place,” Gresham said, noting that DHA, who runs the county’s Head Start program, has a wait list for students where there is currently no more room.
“Who else is going to spend a million dollars and employ (47 people)?” Gresham asked. “That’s not counting these after school programs, what they’re going to put in in playground equipment and the GED (program).”
Gresham said the district was given a proposal late in 2022 by DHA, something Davis confirmed.
At the time, Davis said, the district thought it was still facing litigation over the closure of Inverness Elementary School and East Sunflower Elementary School, both announced last winter.
She said they did not want to have any discussions with potential buyers until a judge ruled on whether the schools would stay closed or reopen.
As it turns out, the judge had ruled reportedly in September, but the district was not notified it was victorious in the case until December.
Based on the initial proposal by DHA, Davis said the board noticed some overlap in services DHA was proposing and what the district was already doing or planning to do at James C. Rosser in Moorhead.
“We saw some duplication of services there,” Davis said. “We don’t want competition coming in and taking away from services we’re wanting to provide as a district. They have some good ideas, but unfortunately, their ideas are one in the same with the ideas we have and what we’re looking to do at Rosser.”
DHA informed the district late last year, due to the timing of its grant, it needed an answer by Feb. 15 of this year on the sale of the building.
The timing is unfortunate, Davis said, but it’s not going to speed up the process.
“They’re not interested in making a hasty decision,” Davis said of the Sunflower County Consolidated School District Board of Trustees. “They’re going to look at all the proposals and think about what the district may be interested in doing long-term.”
Davis said the board will hear other proposals during next Tuesday’s meeting, but she said not to expect a decision anytime soon.
“We have a couple people coming to our February 14 board meeting with those proposals, and we’ll hear then what they’re wanting to do and how much money they’re willing to invest,” she said. “We know a couple of those people have said they have grants that will allow them to do renovations, but like I said, we’ll know February 14…A decision will not be made at the February 14 meeting.”
Davis said she expects the board will hear at least one proposal for the shuttered East Sunflower building as well.
