Cardinal Schools’ Jordak Elementary Auction Set for March 2025
The sale of the abandoned A.J. Jordak Elementary School in Middlefield Village must take place by July 1, 2025.
The sale of the abandoned A.J. Jordak Elementary School in Middlefield Village must take place by July 1, 2025.
Cardinal Schools Board of Education President Linda Smallwood told the board Sept. 25 state law gives the district one year to sell a school once it is no longer used for student instruction.
“Or we have to give it to somebody,” she said. “Being that we always need the money, (the date) is a starting point for the board to discuss.”
The board set a tentative timeline beginning with an online auction of any contents that remain in Jordak from November to Feb. 1.
Those items will be removed from the building by Feb. 15 and a walk-through for the public and potential buyers was set for March 1. The auction of the building may be as early as March 31.
“We will need an appraisal update and a title search. We probably don’t need a survey,” Smallwood said, adding a survey was made of the parcel when the neighboring school and bus garage were sold several years ago.
“I talked to the Jordak family and they have requested everything with the name Jordak on it, they would like first dibs on it,” she said.
The board passed a motion to that effect.
The action and discussion followed an hour-long executive session with the reasons advertised as personnel and the purchase or sale of district property.
In other business, the board voted unanimously to increase pay for qualified substitute teachers to $150 per day from $100 per day, beginning immediately, in order to attract or retain them.
The board also heard from two students who attended a five-day leadership conference for high school students during the summer.
Bella McMurray, senior class president, and Oliver Kumher, a junior, spoke about their experiences at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea.
About 40 students from different schools attended lectures, had meals and spent free time together learning a variety of skills and social differences, Bella said, adding students were randomly partnered each day for the work sessions.
“We did a bunch of different exercises over those days to help us communicate better,” she said, adding they were encouraged to talk about the subjects the keynote speakers addressed.
“They wanted to know if (their lectures) changed how you think about something,” she said.
During the event, Bella said she began to realize the cultural contrasts among her peers.
“If you grow up in a different town, you think differently,” she said. “I learned different backgrounds create different people.”
