Haverhill should take it slow when it comes to selling off former public school buildings.
True, it does not make sense to let a building sit vacant for years, to the point where it becomes a target for vandalism or squatters.
But that is not the case with the former Bartlett School, which has been vacant only for about a month, since the Hill View Montessori Charter School, which had leased the building since 2004, moved to a larger facility in the Ward Hill Business Park.
Mayor James Fiorentini said he is more than willing to give the building back to the School Department, but he wants a decision made quickly, and says whoever uses it will have to maintain it. Otherwise, he wants to sell it to the highest bidder.
It is reasonable, given the city's financially strapped condition, to insist that the city not be required to maintain it. But the City Council was wise to put the brakes on putting the building up for sale.
Just because the building is not being used now does not mean it will never be needed. And selling it now, in a depressed real estate market, means the city would probably get much less for it than it might in another year.
In addition, councilors pointed out that the city is paying $220,000 a year to lease the St. James School building from the Boston Archdiocese for special education programs. It could save considerable money to move those programs to the Bartlett building.
Another option has come from Euthemia Gilman, principal of the public Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School, who said she could use the building to accommodate 80 students on a waiting list for the school's free, full-day kindergarten program.
Gilman said she could put four kindergarten classes on the first floor, which is handicapped accessible. She described the classrooms as, "beautiful, freshly painted and very big."
Fiorentini said he is willing to wait for a month to let Superintendent Raleigh Buchanan complete a study of possible school uses for the building.
The mayor is correct to insist that the building not remain in limbo for a year or more. But two or three months will not turn the building into a derelict.
The city should be absolutely sure this is a building it will not need in the long term before it lets it go.
