Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - The Rochester School District may be moving closer to finalizing the sale of the former Golden Hill School property.

The School Board first approved a purchase agreement in September of 2015 with the Ryan Companies, which had agreed to pay the district’s full asking price of $1.8 million dollars. Since then, Ryan has requested extensions of the purchase agreement, with the most recent occurring last June when the company agreed to pay $50,000 in non-refundable earnest money.

That extension expired at the end of the year, and now Ryan is proposing setting a closing date at the end of February along with a $100,000 price reduction due to engineering challenges in redeveloping the property. The sale would still be contingent on government approval of permits for the project, including the demolition of the existing building and the EPA’s approval of a remediation plan.

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The School Board is also scheduled to discuss expanding the current highly gifted student program at the Friedell Middle School. The board has been asked to consider adding two or three sections, with room for approximately 90 to 95 students at Kellogg Middle School next fall to accommodate an increase in the number of qualified sixth graders that will be entering Middle School in September. It’s estimated the expansion would cost about $124,000.

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