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Agency can lease Moton
By DAN DeWITT BROOKSVILLE -- Mid-Florida Community Services will continue to use old Moton School for Head Start and other programs. But it will not buy the building, as the Hernando County School Board originally contemplated. The nonprofit agency will lease it if the agency can formalize the agreement it reached with the School Board on Wednesday. The board members, who discussed the matter at a workshop, all seemed to have the same goals for the 60-year-old school, which all black children in Hernando County attended until the late 1960s. They wanted to avoid the costs of maintenance and liability associated with the school, now known as Robert R. Moton Early Intervention Center. They wanted to preserve it. And they seemed to agree with Sharon Vickers, the manager of the Head Start program at the school, who told them the building "should continue to be an educational facility for the students and the entire community." But, at the beginning of the meeting, School Board Chairman John Druzbick told them Florida law forbade what had seemed the most obvious way to accomplish these aims: selling the cluster of buildings for a nominal fee. He said he had talked to School Board attorney Karen Gaffney just before the meeting. She told him law required the board to have the property, which has an estimated value of about $1-million, appraised and allow the public to bid on it. Or, they could ask the state to waive this process, which would allow the board to offer it to a community group for a lower price, he said. Board member Gail David, who recently changed her last name from Coleman, suggested a low-cost lease for the building instead, as long as the public agency would assume the maintenance costs and liability. That was fine with Mid-Florida, executive director Michael Georgini told the board. "A long-term lease is very possible, with us assuming the liability and paying for the upkeep of the facility," he said. Two other organizations that had previously asked to use the building gave word, either at the meeting or before it, that they were withdrawing their requests. Frankie Burnett, president of the Hernando County Chapter of the NAACP, endorsed Mid-Florida's plan. So did all the other speakers, including Vickers, who besides her position with Head Start, is vice president of the local NAACP. She pointed out that Mid-Florida operates several programs out of the facility. It serves meals to elderly residents five days a week throughout the year, and, during the summer, provides two hot meals per day to children. The agency helps parents study for their General Educational Development tests. And children also have access to dental care at a clinic on the property. The board asked Gaffney to draw up a lease agreement for the building. The agency now has six Head Start classes at Moton and three at Kennedy Park. If the School Board approves the agreement at a meeting -- probably in the next month or two -- all the classes will be held at Moton.
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From today's Hernando Times |
