Reading School District Gets OK to Sell Education Center
Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 12:00 CST
By Jason Brudereck, Reading Eagle, Pa., Reading Eagle, Pa.
Dec. 23--The Reading School District has gotten permission to sell the vacant Reading Education Center to Reading Hospital, which plans to build a School of Health Sciences on the site.
Berks County Judge Stephen B. Lieberman approved the deal Thursday.
The Pennsylvania school code requires a court hearing when a school district sells property without a public auction, district Solicitor John C. Bradley Jr. said.
Bradley said he had to prove the district would get more money from the sale than it might have at a public auction of the property at Museum Road and Parkside Drive South.
The building and property were appraised at $535,000 and the hospital has agreed to buy it for $1.5 million, testified Richard Mable, vice president of planning for the hospital.
The Reading Planning Commission has granted conditional preliminary approval to the hospital's plan to build a threestory, 62,000-square-foot School of Health Sciences on the property.
The hospital plans to move its nursing school from its main campus a block away to the new building.
Reading students were last at the education center for the 2004-05 school year and are now being served at sites throughout the district, testified Geraldine Ryan, the district's director of alternative education.
The only objection to the project came from Ermete Raffaelli, who is chairman of the city planning commission but said he attended the hearing Thursday as a private citizen.
While Raffaelli agreed with district officials that the building is in dire need of repair, he said repairing it would be a better long-term investment for the school district.
Raffaelli also asked Lieberman to allow 60 to 90 days for the district to receive other offers for the property.
Lieberman said it's clear the building is dilapidated and the district has no more use for it.
"This court is not here to second-guess the Reading School District," he said.
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Copyright (c) 2005, Reading Eagle, Pa.
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Source: Reading Eagle
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