(Seguin) — A local church hopes a big decision that it made to end 2019 will pay off big for the congregation and the community in 2020 and beyond. Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church has completed its purchase of the Seguin ISD’s Juan Seguin campus. The district, earlier in the school year, decided to move forward with selling the vacant and aging building, located at 450 Dolle Street just west of the Seguin Police Station.
The school was officially closed as a campus in 2010. It last served as the district’s pre-k campus and was part of a list of properties that the district’s facilities committee recommended should be put up for sale. The school district used a competitive sealed bid process to find a buyer for the school. Spirit of Joy’s bid of $125,000 was accepted by the district in May of this year, and it has taken months for closing to occur. That process officially came to an end, with a closing on December 30.
Rev. Megan Elliot, pastor of Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church, says the church conducted a feasibility study once the bid was accepted, and then started working with the Seguin ISD and the city of Seguin to get the deal closed. Both governmental entities had to be involved because there were some questions on the title about who owned various portions of the property.
“It was certainly a complicated process to close on this property. There were a lot of title issues that needed to be worked out. You had two public entities — the city (of Seguin) and the school district — trying to come to agreement on the title issues. You had a bunch of people doing research. So it really was a monumental effort to even get to the point of closing,” said Elliot.
A handful of members from Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church gather for their official purchase of the Seguin ISD’s Juan Seguin campus.
The process wasn’t easy, but Elliot says they are thankful that so many people worked together to bring the sale to fruition.
“We are incredibly grateful. There are a lot of people, who came in over the holidays. There were people that put in extra hours. There were people that spent countless days and weeks working on this, and we would not have been able to close by the end of the year if it hadn’t been for those efforts. So we are really grateful for everybody who worked on getting us to this place. We are really excited that we have now closed on the property, and for what lies ahead,” said Elliot.
Now that the ownership has officially been transferred over to Spirit of Joy, Elliot says there’s a great deal work that still needs to be done. She says the church is eager to get started, but she knows it’s going to take some time to get the renovations started.
“Right now, Spirit of Joy is going to be working with architects and contractors, and getting construction plans put together. Our next couple of months is going to be working on getting all of the designs done, and all of the paperwork put together so that we can actually start doing some construction work,” said Elliot.
The church’s initial plans call for renovtions to be made on some space that could be used by the church for worship, for classes and for other uses. Elliot says they are looking at two buildings initially that are believed to be in relatively good condition.
“We are going to be focusing on the library and the auditorium on the west side of Dolle Street. We are going to be rehabbing those first, but we are also going to be focusing on the buildings on the east side to make sure that they are sealed and secure, so that they will not sustain any additional damage beyond what they already have. Our plan is to rehab the two buildings on the west side, first; and then work on getting community partners and grants and other funding sources to start working on the buildings on the east side,” said Elliot.
One of the reasons why the district selected Spirit of Joy’s bid was the fact the church was so committed to trying to preserve the history of the Juan Seguin campus. The school has an historical marker, which suggests that it was the first segregated school for Mexican-American students in the state of Texas. Elliot says that school’s history and its place in the neighborhood will not forgotten. She says they will work with others to try to figure out the best use of some of those other buildings. The church will be eventually looking for partners — likely non-profit groups that need space, and that can provide services that benefit the people of Seguin. It’s a work in progress for the church, but Elliot says they are now on their way towards something good for Seguin.
“The buildings on the east side are what we are going to focus on for community use — in terms of putting together a museum, a community center, and a bunch of things that will hopefully benefit all of Seguin. It’s going to be a multi-phase process. It’s going to take us several years to get to the end of this project. We are really excited to get started. While we are waiting on all of the documents, we are going to be having some work days and doing some work ourselves. The little bit that we can do to get started. I think we are all extremely excited to get the work underway,” said Elliot.
Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church currently meets in the Silver Center in downtown Seguin. According to the church’s website, guests “are welcome just as you are — come and join us.” The church will eventually relocate to its new home in the Juan Seguin School. An exact timetable for that move is not yet known.
The old auditorium at the Juan Seguin School will soon become worship space for Spirit of Joy Lutheran Church.
Meanwhile, the Seguin ISD’s sale of the building is part of a strategy to rid the district of vacant buildings that in some cases sat dormant for years. Seguin ISD Superintedent Dr. Matthew Gutierrez earlier this year spoke about why the district was recommending the sale of spaces like Juan Seguin.
“It’s no longer a facility that the district could utilize for a variety of reasons because of capacity and the amount of money we would have to put in if we were going to use it. It just wouldn’t be a facility that would hold 550-600 kids. I feel very fortunate that we have been able to receive a lot of support about this decision, and the community feels strongly about addressing our vacant facilities because they are coming at a cost, and we had a variety of input that was provided through that facilities committee — who they represent different segments of the population. One individual on the facilities committee even lives in that neighborhood and she provided some very valuable information as well, and we really want to show the community that we have plans to be good stewards of taxpayer’s dollars and that we are making an effort to address these vacant facilities. We will have more vacant facilities that we are looking to address later but for right now, things are looking pretty good for the Juan Seguin campus,” said Gutierrez.
The former Lizzie M. Burges campus is also on the market. The campus previously served as the district’s disciplinary alternative school. The program has been relocated and is now part of the Saegert campus in downtown Seguin. That move left Burges empty, and allows the district to try to find a suitable buyer for that school as well.
The Saegert campus, itself, had been vacant for years prior to the formation of the district’s new facilities plan. The campus was reopened this school year with the displinary alternative education program. It now also houses the district’s Mercer-Blumberg Learning Center, which had previously been housed in Oak Park Mall. The district is hosting an open house for its Saegert facility from 4:30 to 6 p.m. on Monday. The community is encouraged to attend the event.