Idea Presented to Reuse Former Ford City School
The former-Ford City Junior/Senior High has stood idle along Fourth Avenue since it closed in June 2015, but Armstrong School District board directors heard the beginning stages of an idea to sell the school to a national university. Borough leaders will also hear plans to reuse the school later this month.
by Jonathan Weaver
In a few weeks, Ford City Borough leaders will listen to a proposal for the former Ford City Junior/Senior High.
But, a Ford City man hopes Armstrong School District board directors consider a different proposal.
Don Mains, of Ford City, spoke to school directors last night and requested they look into allowing the former 7-12th grade school to be repurposed as a “small campus of a national university.”
While not mentioning the university by name, Mains mentioned the university has 80 urban and suburban campuses across the United States – including one in the Pittsburgh region and a half-dozen in the Philadelphia region – and would use two dozen classrooms for students.
“I’m proposing that we be a rural campus and be the rural hub that creates a market for this university throughout the rural United States,” Mains said. “This is just the beginning – (school directors) are hearing it first. Things haven’t been lined up yet to meet with them.”
Mains, the former U.S Deputy Assistant Secretary for Economic Development, proposed that an Armstrong School District official join with county representatives and meet with the business/technical university at their headquarters in northern Virginia and extend a formal invitation to visit Ford City after some cosmetic repairs.
Superintendent Chris DeVivo also received a letter signed by U.S. Housing and Urban Development Associate Assistant Deputy Secretary Nelson Bregon endorsing the proposal.
Board Vice-President Chris Choncek (who led the meeting in President Joseph Close’s absence) and School Director James Rearic encouraged Mains to have the university submit a financial offer for Armstrong School District’s consideration.
“We’re definitely willing to listen to anybody interested in taking over that building,” Choncek said.
Don Mains
Mains – a former Ford City High graduate - also hinted at the National Trust for Historic Preservation wanting the former school on the National Registry due to the European immigrants that attended the school when it first opened.
Mains said an Armstrong County graduate is on the university’s Board of Trustees.
Ford City officials listen to the TREK Development proposal to repurpose Ford City Junior/Senior High and the parking lot at 5:30PM August 24 at the Latin American Club.
At the beginning of the regular meeting, Superintendent DeVivo and school directors also welcomed new teachers that will begin in the district this month – including four elementary hires that were in the audience for the meeting.
Armstrong School District, Ford City | jweaver August 9, 2016
4 Comments
Other Links to this Post
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
By mad-2010, August 9, 2016 @ 8:40 AM
Go for it Mr. Mains. Best News of the day! Hope it becomes Reality.
By cartman, August 9, 2016 @ 9:49 AM
Sort of hate to say it, but the best way to deal with abandoned schools is to tear them down and develop the land. No matter what you do to them, they are still eyesores. Besides, why would a university want to move into a rickety old building that was barely fit for students?
By omgicantbelieveit, August 9, 2016 @ 9:57 AM
This is one of the funniest ideas yet. Let’s put a college in our drug addicted catholic run town and expect to get students. People no longer want to live here let alone have their children live here to attend college.
By mutchka, August 9, 2016 @ 12:43 PM
Hey don we have a college 3 miles away maybe we should get a grocery store instead