Is $50K bargain price legal for Gibbs, Hines schools

(CNS)- The St. Mary Parish School Board must comply with state bid law when selling unused school lands to a non-public entity, according to an attorney general opinion provided to St. Mary Parish Assistant District Attorney Eric P. Duplantis.

The opinion, authored by Assistant Attorney General Daniel D. Henry Jr., said the bid law would not be required in efforts to sell Baldwin Elementary to the Town of Baldwin but Louisiana law would still require that the property be appraised and fair market value received for the property.

Besides Baldwin Elementary, the board wants to sell Thomas Gibbs and Mary Hines elementary schools. The schools have been deemed as surplus property after the construction of a new consolidated elementary school, according to Duplantis.

Henry said state statute requires that school boards advertise and receive bids on two separate occasions and must fail to receive 85 percent and 80 percent, respectively, of the appraisal amount on each of the bid openings before being allowed to take bids a third time to sell the property without a statutory minimum bid.

Duplantis, in his request for the opinion, said the board advertised for bids on all three schools and received no bids. The board, however, was able to sell another school, G.W. Hamilton Elementary School, at its appraised value.

Thomas Gibbs Elementary appraised for $103,546 and after no bids were received, a private concern – Psalms 27 LLC – offered $50,000. Mary Hines Elementary appraised for $90,315 and likewise received an offer of $50,000 from a private entity.

Henry said initial efforts to sell Thomas Gibbs and Mary Hines did not qualify as one of the three bids required by Louisiana statute nor do offers to purchase the schools do not constitute as actual or attempted sales.

Henry did not offer an opinion on whether or not the $50,000 offers on school buildings appraised at $103,546 and $90,315, respectively, would qualify as fair market value.