The suggestion has been made that our local School District might sell some of its unused properties to provide funds to build a swimming pool, if it wished to do so. I have been quoted correctly as stating that the rules for such a sale are complicated. But they are not impossibly complicated.

Here, in a simplified nutshell, are the rules regarding the sale of school properties, as they apply to our School District.

The Fountain Hills Unified School District owns four unused properties. These are: (i) three school sites given to it in the early 1970s by McCulloch Properties, Inc., MCO’s predecessor as the master developer of Fountain Hills and (ii) the abandoned Four Peaks Elementary School on Del Cambre Avenue.

The School District has the authority to sell any of these properties but, with some limited exceptions, any sale must be approved by the School District electors and the election must state the intended use of the proceeds of the sale.

1. The proceeds may be used to reduce existing bonded indebtedness or to reduce school taxes.

2. The proceeds may be used for the purchase or construction of another school or for school capital improvement needs.

3. The proceeds may not be used for maintenance and operation expenses.

One or more (probably more) of these properties could be sold to pay for the construction of a school swimming facility on an unused part of the high school property.

The first step, the decision to ask the voters to approve a sale for that purpose, is up to the School Board.