By TIM UNRUH
Salina Journal
TIPTON — Two years after losing a public school in a bitter district reorganization, this town is gaining a business and 40 jobs.
Tipton, population 240, is poised for a boon by selling the public school building it owns.
Markay Specialty Schools, St. George, Utah, has signed a contract to buy the vacant Tipton public school building for $150,000.
The school district, based in Cawker City, sold the public school building to the city of Tipton in 2004 for $20,000.
The plan is to transform the building into a school for troubled teenagers. Markay Specialty Schools co-owner Kevin Richey said Monday he plans to open Tipton Academy between mid-May and June 1.
It will bring up to 40 jobs to a town starved for population.
“It's fantastic,”said Adrian Arnoldy, Tipton's mayor. “It'll be our chance to get our town going again.”
The company is finalizing its financing for the purchase and awaiting licensing in Kansas as a residential secure treatment facility, Richey said. He and his wife, Kaye, formed Markay in December 2004 for the purpose of starting the academy.
They found the Tipton school building on eBay, the Internet auction site, and chose it for the central U.S. location, quality and price, Richey said.
The school is big enough for 100 students, he said, all who will wear military-style uniforms.
“It won't be like an in-your-face drill sergeant program, but it will be military structure,” he said.
The students, ages 12 to 18, who are “not making it in their home environment,” will live at the school, he said.
“The biggest factor is you're going to get them away from negative peers and get them into a situation of positive peers,” Richey said.
Tipton Academy students will be sent there by their parents, who will pay from $2,500 to $3,000 in monthly tuition.
“A lot of parents will have to take out a loan to make it work for them,” Richey said.
He's been helping send youths to programs like Tipton Academy for 10 years through Teen Options, an independent admissions company he owned.
Richey is reviewing applications for a program director. That hiring decision is expected by the end of next week.
The firm needs 40 workers to staff the school around-the-clock. Salaries range from $20,000 to $50,000 a year.
“We knew we had a building that was marketable to somebody to come in and do something like this,” said Kent Hake, a city councilman and manager of Great Plains Manufacturing in Tipton, which employs 40.
“I think it's going to be a real positive business coming into our community,” he said. “Schools have been a big thing in Tipton, and they will continue to be.”
Most of Tipton's youngsters are educated in a private Christian grade school and a Catholic junior high and high school.
The Christian school is completing its second year, which came in the wake of a reorganization of the Waconda School District. There followed a series of counter moves by Tipton and its Catholic high school and the public school board, which then removed all public education from Tipton.
“It's the old story. We lose our school, and we lose our town,” said Fred Smith, owner of Tipton Grocery. He's on the boards of both schools in town.
Notice of the jobs has been sent to alumnus of the Catholic school who have moved away.
“We're hoping to bring some of those people back,” Smith said.
Selling buildings through eBay has become popular, said Murray McGee, director of development in Osborne County, who helped Tipton with the sale of its school building. It was listed on eBay beginning in October.
He's involved in marketing a city-owned school building in nearby Hunter. Since it was listed on eBay April 1, McGee said 17 parties have inquired.
“A couple are working on business plans and possible offers,” he said.
The YWCA building in Salina also is listed for sale on eBay.
Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419, or by e-mail at sjtunruh@saljournal.comCopyright2005 Salina Journal