Columbus (Ohio) district will demolish 4 schools that are set to close

The Columbus (Ohio) district is moving forward with the demolition of four schools it recently voted to close.

The Columbus Dispatch reports that the board has approved plans to demolish Broadleigh Elementary, Buckeye Middle School, Moler Elementary and the McGuffey Road school building housing Columbus Alternative High School after the buildings close. No demolition would happen before the 2026-27 school year.

Board President Michael Cole said the board wanted to "make sure the assets we have to close don't stand as blighted objects in our community."

The board voted in December 2024 to close the four buildings.

Andy Boy, CEO of United Schools, a charter school with multiple locations around the city, said United Schools has bought four school buildings from the district in the past and that it is disappointing that these closed schools won't be available for sale.

"I recognize that the district has a lot more to consider and think about when it comes to their work than maybe we do, but I think when we all come to this thinking about what's best for kids, it's a clear opportunity for us to work together to do something in communities that need great schools," Boy said.

Boy also said that if the district was simply demolishing buildings without a clear plan for what it will do with the property next, it could be seen as an attempt to avoid selling them to charter schools as laid out in state law.

Cole said that the district was working to identify what kinds of assets in its portfolio might be sellable to charter schools, and said that the demolition voting "has nothing to do with charter schools."

"I don't know that if I were a charter school, that I would want that facility – we closed it for a reason," Cole said. "We closed it because it was aged, because the cost of renovation was too high, we closed it because we don't have the budget space to accommodate the cost to modernize that building. If I'm a charter school, I don't know I want to move into an asset like that."