ATIKOKAN — A former elementary school property in Atikokan is up for sale.
The Rainy River District School Board is looking to sell off two surplus pieces of land it owns in the town, with one of them being the former North Star Community School property on Hawthorne Road.
The school saw its last graduating class in June 2023; over the preceding several years, students had been transferring from North Star to the Northern Lakes K-12 School, said Travis Enge, the executive officer of facilities services for the board.
“We did a big project starting in 2020 where we turned our existing high school — we renovated, we tore parts of it down, and we put an addition on to create a K-to-12 school with associated child care attached to it,” he said.
“After we finished that project and moved all of our students over, the North Star school was truly surplus, so we sought permission from the ministry to dispose of it.”
While conferring with provincial officials, Enge said, they identified another piece of surplus property the board owns — an undeveloped 7,105 square-foot parcel of land on Cedar Crescent in a residential area.
Enge said he’s not entirely sure of the history of that property, but speculated it could have been used, or held for, a teacherage or some other facility to support board operations.
Bid documents provided by the board say the south end of the North Star property that has the school building on it is zoned for institutional use, while the north end, which includes play fields, is designated as open space.
According to excerpts of the town’s current zoning bylaw included in the bid documents, institutional uses can include things like a seniors home, community centre, arena or for a variety of educational, cultural or religious uses.
Open spaces are generally parks, outdoor recreation areas and other greenspaces.
Atikokan’s existing official plan also has the property in a residential area of town.
The properties are being sold “as-is,” information from the board said.
The bid documents say that converting the property (specifically the south end) to a non-institutional use would require the town to amend its zoning bylaw, which would include giving nearby residents the right to weigh in on any proposals.
“However, based on the economy of Atikokan, it is the appraiser’s opinion that conversion to an alternative use, and potential property taxes, would result in the amendment being viewed positively by the Town of Atikokan.”
The existing school building was constructed in 1956 with an addition for a gymnasium following in 1967, the bid documents say. In 1998, a “substantial” renovation was done to the two existing sections, with another addition built at the same time to house a new gym.
The school board is accepting offers on the properties until 2 p.m. CT on April 22. Information is available online.
Enge said these types of sales are part of longstanding efforts to sell off properties the board no longer requires.
“We don’t have a lot of surplus property anymore,” he said. “Lots of school boards had property, and we use some of it and you had some that you didn’t — and you kind of sat on it in case one day you ever needed it,” he said.
“But now the ministry is looking at that kind of stuff and trying to free up properties … so we’re looking to just keep what we need.”
