Current plans are to raze builidng, but board continues to pursue selling
As the Milroy School Board navigates the final year before consolidating with Tracy Area Public Schools, they are also taking steps on the details of closing the school.
During the regular board meeting Monday night, the board approved to begin contract negotiations with Wold Architects and Engineering for services in an amount not to exceed $35,000. Wold Architects and Engineering would help the school with the demolition process if a buyer is not found for the building.
Wold Architects and Engineering provided a draft timeline to the board; with authorization to proceed approved at the meeting, the next step would be the property survey and field verification. Creating bidding documents would occur between November 2025 and January 2026. The bid period would not commence until February 2026, and permitting would then take a few months. Other steps including the bid opening, abatement bid opening, building decommissioning, abatement and demolition would take the project into October 2026.
Supt. John Willey explained that once the consolidation is official on July, 1, 2026, the building would then be owned by Tracy Area Public Schools, and the contract would finish out with them.
While it is too early to get a full picture of the costs, the budget recommendations from Wold (based on previous projects) varied from an average low bid of $686,544.89 to an average bid cost of $983,169.71. This includes abatement and demolition.
Entering into negotiations with Wold does not mean demolition is the only option for the building. The school can still sell the building. Willey stated at the meeting that he did have someone interested in looking at the building. They had to cancel their first scheduled walk-through, but he is looking at rescheduling.
The board doesn’t want to incur costs for advertising bids, etc. if they are able to sell the building. Therefore, the board approved setting the final date for accepting sealed bids for the building as Dec. 15, 2025, at 5 p.m. The board can accept a bid or reject all bids received by that time. If they do not receive any suitable bids, they can vote to extend the bid date or move forward with bidding out demolition.
The school has also begun declaring items for surplus. The school started with the band room as band is not offered at Milroy this year. The Tracy Area High School band director has visited the school and selected items she will be able to use once the schools consolidate. The Tracy Area Elementary music teacher will do the same, and the rest of the room will be sold as surplus.
In other board news …
• The board approved the payable 2026 proposed property tax levy at the maximum amount permitted by law.
• The board approved the transfer of $24,386.04 from Fund 1/General Fund to Fund 2 to cover Food Service deficit. They also approved a transfer of $50,558.11 from Fund 1/ General Fund to Community Ed Fund to cover deficit.
• The board approved the second reading of the Student/ Family Handbook 2025-2026.
