Prescott school auction brings $50K

The room was packed.

More than 60 auctiongoers crowded into a former Prescott School classroom Wednesday morning, standing along the walls and spilling into the hallway to witness the sale of the district’s buildings and grounds.

Some there were potential buyers. A few hailed from other states. Others were longtime locals, eager to see what would happen to the school they knew so well growing up.

Within 30 minutes, the auction, performed by Dan Kretzinger of Kretzinger Auction in Corning, had ended in handshakes, high-fives and hugs as Prescott alumnus Justin Cooper, backed by a group of relatives and fellow alumni, purchased the property for $50,000.

“We’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Cooper said after the auction. “We had a lot of community support behind us. Everybody wanted to see it stay in the community.”

Cooper, the son of Prescott School Board president Randy Cooper, said four generations of his family attended the school prior to its closing, so keeping it in the community was priceless. He said he and the others plan to keep the main building and gym intact as a reception hall for reunions and weddings. The office building, he said, could eventually house city hall, a library and additional offices.

But, he said, those ideas are still down the road.

“Our immediate plans are just to go to bed and digest all of this right now,” he said.

Prescott School closed in June of last year. Students now attend classes at Creston Community Schools, with the two districts officially consolidating July 1. The move has been in the works since 2013.

Included in Wednesday’s auction was the 102-year-old main building and nearly 8 acres of accompanying grounds and structures, which include a full indoor basketball court, bus barn, walking track, baseball diamond and a 1961 school building with a brand-new heating and air conditioning system. The entire property was sold at once.

In all, the auction brought in four bidders. Kretzinger stopped for a brief recess as the price began to plateau at $43,000.

One of the first bidders was Carl Thatcher of Creston, who remembers taking his kids to the hatchery in town for chicken-raising supplies when they were in 4-H. He said he wanted to be sure the building wasn’t scrapped.

“I was hoping I could work with the Prescott folks to keep it (in the community),” he said. “Once it got over $35,000, I decided they were serious enough that somebody was going to do something.”

For Kretzinger, this auction had personal connections. Dan’s wife, Terri, taught in the Prescott district for 25 years and now teaches elementary talented and gifted at Creston Community Schools. Dan said he was “tickled” to see the grounds bring $50,000.

“For what’s there, it probably doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but also I’m hearing of other schools that only bring $1,” he said. “It sounds very good compared to those.”

Randy Cooper, who went in with his son on the deal, said from the school board’s perspective, $50,000 was also good price.

“I’d say it was excellent,” Randy said. “We weren’t really figuring on (even) $20,000, maybe. There was no minimum bid.”

The Prescott School Board will hold a public hearing before approving the $50,000 bid during a meeting at noon March 9. The $50,000 will then be folded into the consolidated school districts’ general fund.