The Richmond School Board has revived its Vacant Property Committee in an effort to get a better handle on what the school division owns, what it’s using and what could potentially be sold or redeveloped.

Members of the three-person committee — board chair Dawn Page, committee chair Garrett Sawyer and 5th District member Stephanie Rizzi — said the School Board’s desire to have more oversight of property transfers, as well as the need to address overpopulation concerns on the Southside, had spurred the committee to meet again after a months-long lull. 

“We’ve had several instances where we have had to make decisions about properties, and it seems to me like the administration is doing these negotiations and not necessarily coming to the board,” Rizzi said after the committee met last Wednesday evening. 

Both she and Page emphasized the need for the School Board to ensure that when it sells properties, the school system is fairly compensated.

“The city has tried to pull a fast one a time or two,” Rizzi said during the meeting. “We have to be really adamant about the value of these properties and the money the School Board receives for them.” 

Despite its name, the Vacant Property Committee intends to look at more than just properties that are sitting empty. Members pointed to the board’s recent transfers of land to the city Department of Parks and Recreation, as well as negotiations over the transfer of Ruger Field for the construction of a tennis center, as examples of other transactions the committee could review. 

“We all need to be informed so that we can make solid, informed decisions,” said Page. 

A list of vacant or repurposed properties owned by the schools shows four buildings whose fate has not yet been determined. They include the Norrell Annex on West Graham Road, which the Richmond Free Press reported was closed in 2017 after a Richmond Public Schools employee was shot there by intruders (she survived with a non-life-threatening injury), the Richmond Technical Center’s North and South facilities on Westwood Avenue, and the former Thompson Middle School on Forest Hill Avenue, which the School Board approved for demolition in 2020. 

Five other buildings are currently being held for other uses by the board, including the former Ruffin Road Elementary School building. 

That building could be a possible way to relieve overcrowding issues on the Southside, where schools are increasingly relying on trailers for classrooms, said Page.

“Now is the time to have that conversation dealing with the growth in Southside because that’s something that we cannot keep kicking the can down the road,” she said. 

Three other properties are listed as in the process of being transferred to the city: the Arthur Ashe Center, the Moore Street School and 13 acres next to Holton Elementary. 

The School Board agreed to a deal with the city this July under which the city will sell the Arthur Ashe Center for $5.3 million and give the proceeds to the school system. The parcel is expected to be redeveloped as part of the larger Diamond District project. 

The board voted to approve the transfer of the Moore Street School, the city’s first school for Black students, to the city in 2020 as part of a plan to have Virginia Commonwealth University repurpose it as a day care and early childhood center. VCU later withdrew from the project over cost and other concerns. 

Sawyer said one role of the Vacant Property Committee will be to ask questions about the status of properties “and make sure things are proceeding the way they need to in order for us to close things out.” 

The next meeting of the committee will be Oct. 9.