School district moves to unload $3M former Herald-Times property amid budget pressures

The Monroe County Community School Corporation (MCCSC) board has started the process of selling the former Herald-Times building, about three years after acquiring the property. At its regular meeting Tuesday (March 24), the board voted unanimously to initiate the sale.

Tuesday’s meeting started with a public hearing on the potential sale, which is required by state law before a school district can sell a piece of real property. The hearing opened and closed in under a minute, with no one offering public comment. During the regular meeting the public mic also went unused. Board member discussion on the matter took place during the regular meeting.

A notice will need to be published in the next 30 days about the district’s intent to sell the property, which it bought for about $3 million.

Background

Selling the H-T building was one of three options in the mix, after the board got a briefing from the administration at its February board meeting about community feedback on possible uses of the H-T building. The other two options were to delay any action or to renovate the building.

The building is located at 1900 S. Walnut St., which is across the street from Bloomington High School South and near the MCCSC administration building. It was purchased during the tenure of former superintendent Jeff Hauswald. According to the district, the property is currently being used for material and equipment storage, as well as bus parking.

MCCSC purchased the former H-T building in 2022 for just under $3 million. The property had an assessed value of about $1.4 million in 2025. It is zoned for commercial use.

In November 2025, the school board directed district administrators to collect community input on how the district should proceed. In January, MCCSC did that in two ways: an online survey and a community forum.

The online survey collected 404 responses, according to a presentation during the February meeting from assistant superintendent of human resources and operations Jeffry Henderson. The in-person public forum drew four public commenters. The district analyzed the 408 total comments in a presentation to the board last month. After the presentation, board members concluded that responses were split about evenly between selling the property and keeping it.

Community ideas for MCCSC using the property included educational programs, such as a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) center; athletic facilities, such as a fieldhouse or indoor track; community or social services, such as an arts studio or homeless shelter; and administrative or operational use, such as a district welcome center, office and meeting space, and storage.

Board discussion

During the Tuesday (March 24) meeting, school board members discussed the use of the property before any motion was made. All of the members appeared to be in agreement that while there were exciting opportunities for using the building, the district’s current fiscal challenges limit practical options to renovate the building for a particular use—or even to continue holding the property, due to structural repairs that may be required.

Assistant superintendent of human resources and operations Jeffry Henderson told The B Square last month that there are concerns about the condition of the roof, in addition to the “infrastructure of the entire building,” which could include the electrical outlets and ductwork, among other things.

Board member April Hennessey kicked off Tuesday’s discussion. Hennessey said that the building was purchased when MCCSC was in a very different financial position than it is now. She said the property is centrally located and accessible by a bus line, which is helpful for something like a welcome center. She said that MCCSC “has services that are dispersed across our entire district. So if you need to enroll, if you need to get support for certain things, a parent might be charged with driving all over town.”

Board vice president Ross Grimes agreed with a lot of Hennessey’s remarks. “The intent of that building was great,” he said. He said that in attending state and national conferences, he noticed many school districts have a central facility with consolidated services.

Board member Aja Jester, who was appointed to the position just last summer, said, “As the newest member of this body, I do see all the potential, and am probably the brightest-eyed of the bunch. The board’s assistant secretary, Tiana Iruoje, echoed Jester’s excitement.

However, every board member was concerned about the financial implications of keeping the property. Board member Erin Wyatt said, “I see the potential, and I think it’s great to have that real estate, but then on the other hand, it’s really hard to reconcile that with what we’re facing financially.”

In her remarks, Hennessey said that the $2.9 million MCCSC spent on the property, while in the context of personal finances, that “seems like a lot of money.” But in the context of the district’s roughly $180 million 2026 budget, she said that amount is “marginal.”

Grimes added: “To me, the motivating factor is that the money that we would have to commit to make that building what it needs to become is going to, potentially, severely limit our ability to do other things within the district over the next several years. And those buildings are more for the kids.”

During the discussion, MCCSC chief financial officer Matt Irwin answered a question from the board about the cost of necessary improvements to the building. He said the initial estimates were around $35 million. “It would eat up a significant portion of the debt capacity we would have over the next few years. ... So yeah, it would limit our ability to make other necessary improvements that are wanted and needed in some of our other facilities,” Irwin said.

Board secretary Ashley Pirani said, “What would be potentially lost from our other facilities as a result is not worth it to me, even though it saddens me.”

“If there’s a donor out there in the 2.5 people listening,” Hennessey quipped, “who has a lot of money and wants to invest in this building for MCCSC, I will not say no.” Board president Erin Cooperman said that she “even went so far as to reach out to some possible community partners, and there is a lot of interest in the community in partnering with us, but no one, unfortunately, was able to write a check for the amount of money it would take to ... make it usable for those purposes.”

Cooperman described the process of gathering community feedback as “really valuable.” She added, “ I hope that we won’t lose sight of those ideas—those opportunities for partnership, those opportunities for growth, the areas in which our community is interested in seeing us grow, but I think we might have to find other ways to focus on those things.”

After discussion, Grimes made a motion that “the board proceed with the necessary steps to initiate the sale of the Herald-Times property.” Seconded by Hennessey, the motion passed unanimously. Following that, a motion was made by Grimes and seconded by Iruoje to “begin the process of hiring a broker to facilitate the sale of the property.” That second motion also passed unanimously.

MCCSC superintendent Markay Winston told The B Square that the next step is for her to work with the district’s attorneys to publish a notice indicating the intent to sell. The district has 30 days to publish that notice.