The long-vacant Jacobs Middle School campus at 674 Allard Avenue. | File photo.

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More than six years after Eureka City Schools decided to sell off its vacated and deteriorating Jacobs Middle School campus, the district’s board of trustees may soon consummate a deal giving the State of California the exclusive right to purchase the property for $4 million.

The state has long sought the eight-acre property for the purpose of designing and building a new Humboldt-area headquarters for the California Highway Patrol. At next Wednesday’s meeting, the ECS Board of Trustees will consider approving a two-year irrevocable option agreement that could allow the state to do just that.

Per the terms of the deal, the state would make up to two annual, nonrefundable payments to Eureka City Schools of $253,100 (for a total of $506,200) while conducting the environmental and feasibility studies necessary for the CHP project.

If the state chooses to exercise its option, it would purchase the property for $4 million minus whatever payments it has made to the district by that point. 

If the State decides not to exercise its option, then Eureka City Schools could keep whatever option payments it has received and again pursue other suitors for the Jacobs property.

California’s education code gives charter schools and other public agencies priority on purchasing or leasing any real estate that has been declared “surplus” by a school district.

Discussions about a deal with the state have been going on for years, though they were temporarily sidelined by a $6 million offer from a secretive corporation that turned out to have extensive ties to semi-local real estate servicing company magnate Robin P. Arkley II, who was simultaneously bankrolling a ballot initiative aimed at thwarting the City of Eureka’s plans to convert downtown parking lots into affordable housing developments. (Arkley denied any involvement with the corporation that made the offer.)

The Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees and administrators were widely lambasted for the secrecy of negotiations with the mysterious corporation, called AMG Communities - Jacobs, LLC. A report from the Humboldt County Civil Grand Jury said, “In selling the Jacobs property, there was no effective opportunity for the public to know about, consider, and participate in an important decision regarding selling a valuable public asset, even if the result of the decision is perceived to be in the near-term best interests of students.”

When that deal fell apart last August, negotiations with the CHP resumed. (Technically, the talks were with California’s Department of General Services, which handles property negotiations for all manner of state agencies.) 

Click below to download a draft copy of the option agreement, which the Eureka City Schools Board of Trustees will consider at its June 25 meeting, which is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at the district office at 2100 J Street.

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DOCUMENT: CHP Humboldt Jacobs Site Option Agreement

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