Carroll ISD’s board of trustees held a special workshop April 13 to discuss next steps for selling the Don T. Durham Intermediate School property after it closes at the end of the 2026-27 school year and consider a plan to replace buses that do not comply with new state mandated requirements.
What’s happening?
Chase Park, Carroll ISD's deputy superintendent of business and finance, recommended that the board of trustees declare the property located on 801 Shady Oaks Drive surplus and consider a broker from Engel and Völkers to help facilitate the sale.
If the board of trustees declares the 30 acres surplus, then district staff can start looking for buyers during Durham Intermediate School's last year of use, Park said.
“We'd like to get as much of a head start as we can while the building's occupied so that once it does go offline, we can shorten that time of us holding onto property that's no longer being used,” he said.
The district plans to put the money made off this sale into a high yield account to begin earning interest, Superintendent Jeremy Glenn said.
In addition to declaring the property surplus, Park recommended that the district hire Roxann Taylor from Engel and Völkers to represent the district in the upcoming sale.
“Taylor did represent us very well in [a] previous sale,” Park said. “She got us a great value on that sale. We feel confident that she will continue to do the utmost that she can to get us another good value for that property coming up.”
No action was taken by the board of trustees at this meeting.
In other news
The district currently has 17 buses out of 82 total buses that are not compliant with Senate Bill 546, which requires buses to be equipped with three-point seat belt harnesses by September 2029, Director of Transportation Jim Bennett said. Bennett recommended that the district auction off the noncompliant buses in the upcoming years so that by 2029, the district is in compliance with the state mandate.
This recommendation was made because 13 out of the 17 buses are over 18 years old and would require that the internal infrastructure be completely rebuilt to install the seatbelt, which would result in a $375,000 to $727,000 expense, Bennett said.
Since the older buses only sell for around $2,500, Bennett said that retrofitting the buses with these seatbelts would be a poor investment.
With the 17 buses gone, Bennett said that the district would need five replacement buses to ensure there are enough for field trips. Glenn suggested a replacement plan to purchase a few buses a year so that by 2029, the district would have a total of 70 buses that are compliant with SB 546.
These numbers do not take into account the closure of Durham Intermediate School, which may affect how many buses are needed for daily routes, Bennett said.
“This board finds it very objectionable to have unfunded mandates from our state capital,” Vice President Andrew Yeager said. “We are going to have a change in our representation. The person who was our house [representative] is not in the race and same thing at the Senate. We have an opportunity to take to them some of our needs. This unfunded mandate is not just unfunded for [Carroll ISD], it’s unfunded for every ISD in the state. I see some real lobbying power with a lot of ISDs to get some type of funding.”
Looking ahead
The board of trustees will take action on Bennett’s recommendation for updating the district’s buses at the April 20 meeting.
The board will also make a decision to approve or deny the recommendation of the real estate broker and declaring Durham Intermediate School as surplus property at its regular meeting April 20.
