The Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board unanimously approved a motion during its Tuesday, Dec. 3 meeting to direct Superintendent Tom Swaninger, Ph.D., and the school’s business manager to begin creating requests for proposals for an appraiser and a broker in order to begin the process of selling the district’s Big Park Community School campus.

District voters authorized the sale of the property by 7,802 to 2,528, or 75% to 25%, in the Nov. 5 election. 

The vote was preceded by a lengthy executive session during which the board discussed procedures with its real estate attorney.

“This is just the first step that we need,” board member Karen McClelland said. “We can’t proceed without having an idea of the value of the property. When we do these RFPs, that means we’ll ask potential appraisers, potential brokers, to give us a bid for what their service would be. And that’s something that has no timeline and no end … we need more information before we continue to think about what is possible.”

“It would be irresponsible of us to have that property appraised at our expense without any indication that we would be able to move forward,” Swaninger subsequently said of the district’s lack of inclination to have the property appraised prior to the election. “Now that we do have voter approval, and now that our board has voted to authorize that potential pursuit; now is the responsible time to have that property appraised.”

“This will be a fairly lengthy process, but as a result of that, it’s one that we need to get started on now,” Governing Board President Randy Hawley said. “But I just want to make it clear to everybody that this is just the beginning. We’re just going to approve looking at getting on a realtor to take a look at some things, in no way commits us to putting on the market or anything else at this point.”

“We need to sell Big Park, this just reaffirms that,” board member Lauren Robinson.

Swaninger announced that the district is discussing the possibility of resurrecting its football program and that the Sedona Education Foundation nonprofit is in the early stages of relaunching with “a new direction.” SEF has focused on providing scholarships to graduating high school seniors, but Swaninger said its board would be meeting on Wednesday, Dec. 4, to discuss serving all ages in the district and supporting areas such as preschool funding, student academic coaching and extracurricular activities.  

SRRHS Principal Heather Isom is meeting with an individual interested in heading SOCSD’s dormant theatre program. Those interested in leading the theatre program can contact Isom at (928) 204-6712 or Isom@SedonaK12.org.

“[Theatre] is a priority item for us as a district to get something, to get our performing arts up and running for our kids who perform, but also for the kids that want to see the performances and our community members,” Swaninger said. Swaninger also gave a presentation in collaboration with representatives from a project management company called SiteLogIQ about record keeping software.

appreciated the emphasis on long-term planning and noted that there are considerable capital expenses in the future,” the meeting minutes stated. “Members also verified that the platform allows needs prioritization and customization according to district priorities. SitelogIQ staff noted that this plan is increasingly important as district facilities age and begin to require significant repairs.”

“Is security included in this?” Robinson asked Swaninger. “That’s one of our long-term goals, to kind of batten down the hatches at both campuses.”

“It only assesses the assets that we currently have,” Swaninger replied.

SRRHS students have reformed the Key Club and have also recently created a Senior Class Club to help raise the $6,000 to $8,000 needed to hold graduation outdoors on the football field. 

“Most of our senior class wanted to do that again because the [Sedona Performing Arts Center] is smaller and there’s less family members that can fit inside there,” student representative Emily Frey said. “We want to have senior field trips and have various events this year … and the parents are going to be the main people that are working on fundraising.” 

No members of the public spoke during the meeting.