School board OKs land purchase
Big Horn County School District No. 3 has purchased a small piece of vacant land on the north side of its high school campus.
At a special meeting on Dec. 3, the board of trustees agreed to the sale price of $50,000 for two lots currently owned by Robin Paris-Guty and Kristi Harvey.
The lots, which total 12,632 square feet or .029 of an acre and form the shape of a rectangle, are located just off the north side of the Quigg building. To the east are apartments, to the north, a parking lot, and to the west, the Buff Gym parking lot.
The $50,000 purchase price includes $500 in earnest money.
Supt. Mark Fritz said the school district ran the purchase by the School Facilities Commission. “They gave us the thumbs up,” he said, adding that the lots will add to the district’s green space, which is insufficient in the view of the state.
Fritz called it an opportunity buy and said the board has options regarding what to do with it. He mentioned a greenhouse, a teacherage or simply preserving it as green space as possibilities.
The school district didn’t budget for the land purchase, so the board voted to tap its capital reserve account. The plan is to restore the $50,000 at the end of the fiscal year, via a transfer from cash carryover.
Business Manager Sara Schlattmann said school districts can only carry 10% of their annual budget in capital reserves.
At the end of the last fiscal year, the district’s cash carryover was the equivalent of about 25% of its annual budget. The percentage that school districts can retain in cash carryover went from 15% to its present maximum of 30% during covid, but lawmakers are expected to consider a reduction in that percentage at their next session.