Columnist Susan Snyder: Austin decision is old school

Monday, March 15, 2004 | 8:14 a.m.

When classes convene next fall, Austin Elementary School students won't walk into the historic school their parents and even some grandparents attended.

Lander County School District Board of Trustees members last week voted 6-1 to close the national historic landmark and move its 13 pupils to a modular classroom positioned outside the building that houses the middle and high schools.

"It was the best way to do it, if it had to be done," said Val Anderson, an Austin middle school teacher who opposed the move. "It will have its own bathrooms."

Little kids sharing space and bathrooms with teenagers was among the concerns of residents and Austin teachers, who successfully fought closure of the school in 2001.

The school, built in 1926, was the first Austin building to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Another 10 buildings were added to the national register this past summer in the town that sits along U.S. 50, in the exact center of the state.

Once one of the state's biggest silver-mining cities boasting 10,000 residents, Austin is now a struggling rural town of about 300. Many residents are counting on historic tourism and outdoor sports such as mountain-biking to stave off the ever-present threat of economic ruin.

Opponents to the measure have said they fear the future of the school building, even if the population boomed once again and called for its reopening.

"We've been told for years and years that once the kids leave the building, it will need major refurbishing," Anderson said.

No state law or statewide policy exists for the process of reopening a historic school, said Doug Thunder, deputy superintendent of administrative and fiscal services for the Nevada Board of Education.

"There isn't really any state control. That decision would be at the district level," Thunder said Friday. "Assuming that there was no structural reason (for closure), I don't see why it couldn't be (reopened)."

Lander County School Superintendent Steve Larsgaard said he doesn't anticipate any huge barriers to reopening the Austin school. The closure was a financial decision, not one based on the school building's condition.

It has a brand-new roof, and if closed up the right way should remain sound. At the end of this school year, the building will be "mothballed" according to the directions obtained from Reno architect Tim Sweeney, Larsgaard said.

"We're going to blow out the water pipes with air and put anti-freeze in. We will continue to have periodic inspections to make sure there are no water drips or varmints or pests getting inside," he said.

Initial costs of the move are about $25,000, which includes transporting the modular classroom from Battle Mountain and sealing up the old school. But it also will cut the elementary school's annual utility bill by about 90 percent -- from $17,000 to $1,800, Larsgaard said.

"This was an economic decision," he said. "There's a lot of emotional costs too, but you can't put a price on that."

Nor put a price on trust. Lander School District officials need to make sure their promises are followed by the book.