Contract To Sell Georgia Washington Middle School Expires
A lawsuit by the Alabama Education Association (AEA) challenging the sale of Georgia Washington Middle School to the Town of Pike Road has not yet been given a final ruling from a judge. However, Pike Road’s attorney says the sale has already been called off.
Attorney Doyle Fuller, says the sale of the school has been terminated after the contract for the sale expired Monday, March 26th, just 3 days before a scheduled hearing in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
The pending lawsuit has held up the nearly 10 million dollar sale for over a month now, after AEA lawyers say interim state superintendent Dr. Ed Richardson does not have the legal right to sale any real property within the Montgomery Public School System. They say that right belongs only to Montgomery School Board Members.
The AEA says they filed the suit after public outcry to keep the school within MPS and preserve the legacy of the Miss Georgia Washington.
“I completely understand wanting to preserve her legacy, that needs to be done” said Doyle “I do not understand the idea that only the Montgomery School Board can maintain that legacy, because that is simply not true”.
Doyle says Pike Road would have used part of the school this upcoming school year, while making renovations to older parts of the school for the next year. Now, he says they have already started to get the ball rolling on their back-up plan.
“We have instructed our construction consultant to go ahead and start the process to get portable classrooms to supply our need for this fall” explained Doyle. He said they’ll be added to Pike Road Historical school.
Should a judge find that the sale of the school is legal, Doyle says renegotiating the sale and possibly the price are not completely out off the picture, though he says it is unlikely. Still he added “If they at some point decide they in fact want to sale Georgia Washington School the first phone call they need to make is to us”.
The slated closing and sale of the school was part of Interim state superintendent Ed Richardson’s intervention plan to fix financial issues within MPS. Richardson has said that if the sale did not go through, a total of nearly 200 MPS teachers and staff would lose their jobs.
