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Ballots began arriving in mailboxes for registered voters in the Mammoth-San Manuel Unified School District No. 8 School Site Sale Election on May 18.
On the ballot, Proposition No. 455 will address the potential sale, lease or exchange of certain parcels of real property and, if this occurs, what should be done with any proceeds from such a transaction.
The sites on the ballot include Avenue B Elementary, First Avenue Elementary, Gardner Middle School in San Manuel, and Mammoth Elementary in Mammoth. These campuses were closed after the district consolidated to the San Manuel High School campus. Also included is the “new pool” in San Manuel.
The school district wants their unused buildings occupied or sold so they do not become an eye sore for the community.
“They need to be useful to someone,” district superintendent Julie Dale-Scott told the Miner in an email. “The district needs your help as a voter to vote YES on this ballot measure for the district to have the ability to do anything with these buildings. We have been asked to lease these buildings to the Mammoth Police Department and to various other groups but can do nothing until the vote is made.”
There is one confusing inclusion on the ballot: 125 N. Clark St., Mammoth. This is actually the site for the Mammoth Town Administration and includes the library and police department.
“There was much confusion for the Town of Mammoth and the Superintendent of MSMUSD given the County Assessors office had the property listed under the Mammoth-San Manuel USD,” Dale-Scott explained. “After much research and meeting with the Town of Mammoth’s Town Council, MSMUSD was able to find the documentation that showed the school district gave it to the Lion’s Club back in 1957 with the intent that when Mammoth became incorporated the property would be passed on to the town of Mammoth. The property was passed on to the town, but never changed with the County Assessor’s Office. After taking care of those changes with the county, the district and the town council agreed to sign documentation stating that the district had no intention of selling their property. The Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) allowed the district to continue with their ballot measure as written with that agreement in place. For the district to continue with that measure on the ballot, they could not make any changes to the reading so the IGA made it possible to proceed. The Mammoth-San Manuel USD WILL NOT be doing anything with the property at 125 N. Clark St. because it is owned by the Town of Mammoth.”
The school district is also seeking permission to sell the pool property in San Manuel and would love nothing more than to be able to sell the property to someone who will utilize it for the community’s benefit.
“It was very difficult to close the pool down,” Dale-Scott said, “but it became a burden when the school district’s many attempts to fix it were met with large quotes and no answers as to where 15,000 gallons of water were disappearing daily. We did have a reasonable quote from a company that deals with smaller pools to come in and fiberglass over the existing pool surface, but we were not sure this would fix the issue. The school district does not have the money to experiment with repairs that may not fix the problem. Furthermore, the district is not going to do something that would possibly become a liability.”
Dale-Scott said, “This ballot measure is very important to the district because it allows us to do something with those properties that currently are a burden to the school’s budget and maintenance department. With the voters help in voting yes on this ballot measure, we will be able to give life to those buildings and help the school’s budget to further benefit the children within the district.”
Ballots can be mailed to the Elections Department or dropped off on Election Day to the Pinal County Mobile Voter Outreach Van which will be parked in the Mammoth-San Manuel Pre-K through 12 School parking lot from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
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