It’s been more than 20 years since Morro Elementary operated as a public school.
With the San Luis Coastal Unified School District looking to sell the property located off Monterey Avenue, a newly-formed community outreach committee is now hoping to preserve the historic site.
“This space that was given by community members should be returned back to the community as opposed to being sold at top dollar to the highest bidder,” said Katie Schlott, with the community outreach committee.
Valued at $10.2 million, the property is currently being leased out to a Montessori school and housing other programs like adult education.
San Luis Coastal Assistant Superintendent Ryan Pinkerton says the lease for the Montessori school has been renewed for another year, knowing the process to sell would take some time.
“We would like to keep the playing fields and the playgrounds. There’s a lot of other programs here,” Schlott said.
Some people would like to see the site turned into workforce housing but not all of it.
“We need more housing in our community to meet the demands of our workforce, but I would also like to see some historic preservation from the original schoolhouse,” said Dina Lundquist, Chamber of Commerce CEO.
The Morro Bay City Council has identified the property as one of the city’s top three priorities to work on in the coming years. According to the city manager, they have 60 days to decide if they want to acquire it for open space purposes.
While the school board has started the process to be able to sell, there is no timeframe on when that may happen.
