DERRY — The School Board is looking into an official appraisal to determine the value of Derry Village Elementary and what the land could be used for.
At the June 10 Derry School Board meeting, Business Administrator Jane Simard presented a report by Dan Scanlon, a senior associate at Colliers International, an investment management company. The report detailed what he believed Derry Village Elementary and the property it’s on could be worth.
According to Scanlon’s report, he estimates that Derry Village could sell for between $2.5 and $3 million.
“He did a comparison to other similar locations, like River Valley Community College, who bought it and what it sold for,” Simard said. “This is his opinion on the value of the property, not a market analysis on what you can sell it for tomorrow.”
Simard added that Scanlon is a broker for Colliers, not an appraiser, and that getting a formal appraisal before selling would allow officials to obtain an estimate closer to the actual market value of the property.
More than a year ago, the School Board voted to close Derry Village and have the other town elementary schools educate students in kindergarten through grade 4; have students in grades 5-6 attend one middle school, and students in grades 7-8 attend another.
The decision to close Derry Village has been upheld in votes after the initial one in 2023. At that time, the plan had been to use the land the school was on to build a new facility. That plan, which would have cost approximately $71.2 million, failed at the town election on March 12.
Now, the board is trying to decide what to do with the land since the last day of school for Derry Village was on June 12.
Chair David Clapp said he thought Scanlon’s letter was a step in the right direction. The board also discussed renting the building, but so far the only organization that has shown interest is the Parks and Recreation Department, which proposed using the gymnasium for the town basketball teams.
“It’s a good start, as a board we need to decide what the true direction is because this needs to be done right,” Clapp said. “There are a lot of factors and considerations in the short-term game and the long term planning.”
Board member Jason MacLeod said he agreed getting a preliminary evaluation from Scanlon was helpful, but said a full-scale appraisal of the land and building is still needed.
“We have to take into consideration the cost of the appraisal, but we need to understand the truest possibility of what that dollar (amount) looks like that DVS sits on,” MacLeod said. “We’ve got to have all fairly firm figures on what everything entails to get an understanding on the best path forward.”