The School Board says selling the historic education center is a better - and less costly - idea than fixing it up as a new home for the STAR program.
By JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK
Published August 27, 2003
BROOKSVILLE - The Robert R. Moton Early Intervention Center on School Street, the county's black high school during segregation, is headed to the sale block again.
School Board members decided Tuesday they do not want to invest the estimated $1-million it would cost taxpayers to renovate the aging structure. They had considered the idea as a possible way to create additional space for the district's "last chance" school.
STAR Education Center can hold 85 students but,principal John Shepherd said, it needs more classrooms. Last winter, STAR had to place a few students on a waiting list.
But Shepherd told the board Tuesday that he thought better options exist.
"My recommendation on this would be to stay where I am and save yourselves a lot of money," he said.
The district could rebuild STAR at its current location on Broad Street, just west of Brooksville Elementary School, at a fraction of the cost, Shepherd said.
Facilities director Graydon Howe backed him up.
"For $1-million, at the existing STAR Center we could put in six to eight classrooms, a clinic and an office, and have new construction under our control," Howe said.
Renovating the Early Intervention Center, by contrast, could open the district to costly work, he said.
"My concern is, every time we touch something at Robert R. Moton, it's old."
Board member Gail David agreed that improving the current STAR Center would be the better option. The only problem, she said, was finding money to cover the expense.
That's where selling the Moton center came into play.
"The answer could be the sale proceeds," David said.
David acknowledged that selling an historically significant building could prove nettlesome. Making matters worse, the buyer might not be Head Start, which occupies the building now.
"We may take some heat politically or personally," David said.
But she and her colleagues agreed that their preferred move was to sell the building that the district owns but does not use, and to improve the STAR Center as needed.
"Are we going to use the asset?" chairman John Druzbick asked. "If not, then we should lose it. . . . We'd all like to see the (STAR) program be even more successful than it is."
Board members directed superintendent Wendy Tellone to get an updated appraisal for the Moton center and to get some legal advice from board attorney Karen Gaffney on how to proceed with the existing leases on the building.
The board talked about selling the Moton building about a year ago but was delayed during a lengthy title search. It put off the sale after the administration suggested that STAR Center needed to expand, and the School Street building might be an option.
