JACKSON OFFERS BURFORDVILLE SCHOOL FOR SALE

JACKSON -- "School for sale cheap. Call Jackson Board of Education office."

Maybe the advertising won't be that simple, but the offer is easy to understand. The board voted Tuesday night to unload its three-classroom school building in Burfordville, hopefully before the district has to pay winterizing expenses.

The first classes met there in 1956, when three teachers instructed students in six grades. The class sizes slowly shrank and hit an all-time low last year, when one fifth-grade and one sixth-grade class met in Burfordville.

All sixth-grade students go to the new middle school this year, and it wasn't any more trouble to transport Burfordville's few fifth-graders to West Lane Elementary inside the city limits. Now the rural building and its two acres are dormant.

It features three classrooms, restrooms, a small kitchen and a multi-purpose room, but Jackson's superintendent and the school board are willing to admit the building and its location don't lend themselves to many uses.

One may be for a new fire station. Milton Mouser, president of the Millersville Fire District, wrote the board in June to express interest in the building.

He will have the opportunity to bid on it like everyone else. Sealed bids will be accepted at the Jackson Board of Education office on Oklahoma Street until 1 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19.

"If we are going to dispose of the property, now is the time," Dr. Howard Jones, superintendent, said. "If we go into the winter with us still owning it, we will have to winterize the plumbing or face a lot of broken pipes."

In other action, the school board accepted a $24,400 low bid from ASA Asphalt Inc. for paving ground at Jackson Middle School. The only other bidder was Apex Paving, and that company's bid was $5,050 higher.

People attending functions at Jackson Middle School have experienced problems finding parking, forcing them to park along Highway D or in the school yard. The new paved area will be used as a playground most of the time and as a parking lot during special events.

A chain across the entrance will keep people out except during those events.

The board also accepted an offer from Central States Bus Co. for two 1996 83-seat diesel buses. At their last meeting, board members voted to buy two used buses for $39,900 each, but later decided to buy the new buses at $51,750 each.