In a hurricane emergency, certain local school boards and the Recovery School District may transfer unused school property directly to qualifying independent secondary schools, subject to stated conditions.
§902. Exchange, lease, sale of unused school land; emergency circumstances A. Notwithstanding the requirements of this Subpart regarding procedures for the transfer of unused school land, whenever any city, parish, or other local public school board which has, as the result of the occurrence of a hurricane which resulted in a declaration of a disaster by both the governor and the president of the United States, a student membership of ten to thirty percent less in May following the hurricane than it had during the October first membership count in the year before the year of the hurricane or the Recovery School District, as provided for in R.S. 17: 1990, has determined that school property exists that will not be used for providing educational services, the governing authority of such school board or such school district may exchange, lease, or sell such property directly, and without meeting the requirements of this Subpart or any other provision of law, to the governing authority of any independent secondary school which has operated a school approved by the State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, pursuant to R.S. 17:11, for not less than twenty-five years prior to August 29, 2005, in an area subject to an emergency declaration of the governor as a result of devastation resulting from a hurricane and which is in need of property or facilities in which to locate a school because its prior school building was rendered uninhabitable by the hurricane and cannot be restored to a habitable condition prior to the beginning of the next semester following the hurricane. However, the Recovery School District shall not exercise such authority to sell, exchange, or lease any property or building unless it first offers such property or building without cost to the local public school board to which the property belonged prior to its being under the control of the school district and such local public school board refuses at a public meeting to accept the return of the property or building. B. Property sold, leased, or exchanged under the authority of this Section shall be sold at a price or leased or exchanged based on a value that is determined by averaging the market value appraisals of three appraisers, one selected by the governing authority of the school system seeking to sell, lease, or exchange the property, one selected by the governing authority of the independent secondary school, and a third selected by the two appraisers selected by the school district and the independent secondary school. The costs of determining the value shall be borne by the independent secondary school. C. Property sold or exchanged under the authority of this Section shall remain the property of the governing authority to which it was sold or exchanged by the school district regardless of the return of any school under the jurisdiction of the school district to the city, parish, or other local public school system from which it was originally transferred. D. The authority granted in this Section may be exercised without compliance with any bidding requirements otherwise required by law. Any proceeds resulting from a lease or sale as authorized in this Section shall be directed to the city, parish, or other local public school board to which the property belonged, regardless of it being under the control of the Recovery School District. Acts 2006, No. 455, §2, eff. June 15, 2006.