The daily newspaper published an article today (“The cost of rejuvenation”) on the possible sale of the closed Brownsville Middle School to George Hawthorne and his Diversified Program Advisors. The article states the school board delayed the vote on the contract, signed Jan. 17, from its February meeting to its March 15 meeting.—actually there is no way for the School Board to do this since it hasn’t meet since its Jan. 18 meeting, the actual person delaying the vote is Superintendent of Schools Malcolm Thomas, who sets the agenda for the meetings.
Why is the vote delayed? Thomas wants to be sure Hawthorne has the $1 million to complete the contract. The article states that an earlier deal (for $800,000) with Friendship Missionary fell through because the church couldn’t raise the money—which is also inaccurate. The Church made a counteroffer of $500,000 when it discovered how much it would take to renovate the buildings. Thomas refused to bring that offer to the School Board.
The daily newspaper article also states that Hawthorne hasn’t paid the escrow money ($10K). I assumed he had since he wrote me in an email: “I have donated the services and fees associated with developing the P.A.T.H. Program (in excess of $20,000).” Typically, the buyer is required to put up escrow money when a contract is signed. Friendship Missionary Baptist Church did, which Thomas kept when the deal fell through.
The school is to be the headquarters of Hawthorne’s Providing Avenues To Hope (P.A.T.H.) initiative, which is copied from the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Best Practices for Gang Prevention, and his proposed Pensacola Family Resource Center, which is copied from a 2001 UCLA report on a Head Start-funded pilot program done by UCLA and an inner-city hospital.
The article does clarify a few points:
DPA needs $2 million: the first million to buy the property, second to develop the ten acres into a Habitat for Humanity subdivision and renovate the school.
Habitat will buy lots that have been developed. To use the grant funds mentioned in the article, these lots must be completed in time for Habitat to build the homes and have people in them by the end of 2012—-about 18 months from when the School Board approves the contract.
I don’t know if Thomas has told Hawthorne that Brownsville Middle School is built on an old landfill.
Quint Studer is not one of Hawthorne’s investors. He might consider loaning $200,000 if Hawthorne has assets to pledge against the loan and Rev. LuTimothy May is involved.
Rev. LuTimothy May and his church aren’t involved.
Gulf Coast Community Bank is not loaning Hawthorne and DPA $1 million for a bridge loan to complete the purchase. Bank President Buzz Ritchie has agreed to help Hawthorne put together his loan package for other banks.
Hawthorne would not tell the reporter who his other potential investors are.
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The delay is good for Hawthorne and the community. It gives him four weeks to line up his investors. He can better explain how his P.A.T.H./Family Resource Center will work and who will be a part of it. He can outline the pro forma for this proposal and give more details on how these two very different programs will be combined and adapted for Pensacola. It will take more than a cut-and-paste from two reports.
Maybe his P.A.T.H steering committee can help him complete this.
And the Brownsville community needs more details about the program and the subdivision. Maybe Commissioner Marie Young can host a town hall meeting, inviting neighborhood associations, businesses and churches to see what is proposed. The Habitat subdivision will have to go through permitting and will need BOCC approval.
Over the next four weeks, local government, agencies, colleges and healthcare systems need to step forward and say whether they will be a part of this project and how they will participate. Or at the very least, be like Quint Studer and publicly state what are their requirements to participate.
All this needs to be transparent.
