Future of defunct Edgewood Elementary pits town against school district

Apr. 11—You wouldn't know it from looking at Edgewood Elementary School's buff and beige exterior, but the school's unoccupied South Building has been at the center of a disagreement — and a lawsuit — between the town of Edgewood and the Moriarty-Edgewood School District since October 2022.

Town officials argue the building is a historic landmark that could still serve as a community gathering space.

"There's a lot of residents here that grew up here, and they went to elementary school in that building. They remember the classes they had, the teachers they had — and it becomes part of you," Mayor Ken Brennan said.

Meanwhile, the district insists the South Building has fallen victim to major structural issues that render it unusable as an elementary school and would require more than $7 million in repairs and renovations to fix.

In court documents, the Moriarty-Edgewood School District claimed the town's behavior amounts to a bid to "unlawfully take" district property.

Members of the district did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

In 2022, town officials offered to pay the school district $400,000 for the South Building. The district responded the sum was not just compensation for the building and the land beneath it.

"Simply put, the South Building ... is not for sale," the district stated in court documents.

A resolution to the dispute seems far away. Mediation efforts last month between the town and district failed, the town announced in a March 20 news release. According to court records, the civil case remains open, with the district agreeing not to move forward with demolition of the former Edgewood Elementary — at least for now.

Unsuccessful mediation efforts in March came as district officials endeavored to formulate their next facilities master plan, a document compiled by school districts every five years to outline construction and maintenance projects to be undertaken.

Demolition of Edgewood Elementary is listed as one of many options for the school board's consideration in formulating the next facilities plan, which has not been officially adopted, said Superintendent Todd Bibiano.

"There hasn't been anything solid decided, but we do know that that location is a place where we could utilize a modernized facility for the community," Bibiano said.

Students haven't set foot in Edgewood Elementary since 2013 when the Moriarty-Edgewood school board voted to shutter the school after a nearly 40% decline in enrollment since 1999.

The 43-year-old building no longer meets the state's adequacy requirements for elementary school facilities.

For continued use, the district argued in court documents, the South Building would require replacement of the roof, flooring, windows, plumbing, fire alarms and sprinklers, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems — as well as abatement of asbestos and other hazardous materials. In 2022, the project was expected to cost more than $7 million.

On the other hand, demolition of the South Building was priced at around $350,000, the district contended, and after demolition, it expected to construct new school buildings or district facilities on the land.

The town resisted efforts to demolish the South Building, arguing it deserved historical preservation as one of the first nonresidential structures constructed in the town in the 1980s.

In its civil complaint against the district, the town claimed it had "the authority and indeed the duty" to preserve historical structures under New Mexico's Historic District and Landmark Act, which provides counties and municipalities "full and complete powers to preserve, protect and enhance the historic areas and landmarks lying within their respective jurisdictions."

"If this building is destroyed, a historical landmark will be gone forever and nothing will bring it back," the town wrote in the complaint.

In addition, Brennan argued the building is a good candidate for use as a community gathering space. With the exception of a church, the elementary school's gym is the only space in Edgewood big enough to host large events.

"It's the town's position that, for starters, the building itself is a perfectly good building and has many, many years of use left in it," Brennan said.