PROVO - Provo School District officials met Tuesday night to approve a measure that would move Provo High School one step closer to relocation.
The district officially placed the school on the district's surplus list, a move which makes the property available for purchase with an agreed contract.
"It's important to know that surplusing the property, doesn't indicate a sale," said Julie Rash, the President of the Provo City School Board. "It doesn't indicate that we've negotiated anything."
Rash says the school district had already made plans to rebuild Provo High School on the property it is currently on. The school was constructed in 1956 and is badly in need of improvements. Last fall, the district approved funding to build the school on the property it's already on, but Rash says last month, an outside company approached the district about purchasing its land.
"It was definitely surprising," Rash confirmed.
Now, the district is considering moving the school to property it owns on the west side of town at 1300 North Lakeshore Drive, 3.3 miles from its current location at 1125 N University Ave.
"I didn’t have any idea," said Mase Morgan, a parent of a Prove High School student. "This is all very, very surprising.”
Morgan said he hadn't heard of the proposed move, and is concerned how it will affect those living near the current school location.
"They'll have to start busing it," Morgan pointed out. "It just so happens we live near the new proposed location, so it benefits me."
Morgan said he has a lot of questions for district officials.
"Who wants to buy the property, and when would it happen?," Morgan asked.
District officials still won't confirm who the interested party is, but Utah Valley Regional Hospital sits just one block away, and the BYU campus sits a block in the opposite direction.
The Provo School Board says they have a long way to go before they make a decision, but they hope to have one made by early November. Before they can get there, officials say they will do traffic studies, engineering reports, and land reports before moving forward.
"As we get more information we will continue to make that available," Rash said. "This isn’t a decision that will be made behind closed doors."
