Anyone with a dollar and a dream could be the new owner of the Ainsworth Elementary School building. The Highland District is seeing potential bids for the building which will be closed after this school year. Superintendent Chris Armstrong says the district has been in talks with the City of Ainsworth about a potential bid on the building. During last week’s school board meeting Armstrong stated the city is “taking the lead on this now.” Armstrong explains that statement, “When I said ‘they’re taking the lead’ they’re taking the lead in having discussions with their community about the building and what might be done with the building and how that may transfer from the school’s ownership to possibly the city’s ownership.” Armstrong said the city council will have the building topic on their agenda May 9.

Armstrong says, “In my opinion ideally, the Ainsworth community would be able to take over that building and use it for whatever they see fit to use it for. I certainly would love to see the gymnasium preserved, that’s really a historic building, and it certainly needs to stay in the community.”

It would be in the district’s best interest, according to Armstrong, to sell the building, as it needs around $400,000 in repairs and costs somewhere from $30,000 to $40,000 to use each year. The board has not determined a selling price, though Armstrong says the district could sell the building for as little as a dollar if it’s sold to a public entity.

If the board comes to terms with a potential buyer they would have a public hearing, and the board would make the final decision on whether to accept the terms of the buyer. Armstrong says the board would like to have a purchase settled by the end of their fiscal year at the end of June.