By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
Oxford Schools might end up owning the Dominican Sisters’ former, longtime retreat center. At its March 9 meeting, the Oxford Community School Board authorized the district to purchase the property at 775 West Drahner Rd., in a 6-0 vote.
“We envision using the existing buildings for some of our current programing as well as some potential programing in the future,” said Superintendent Tim Throne, adding that the property was appealing because it is “centrally located.”
The 32-acre campus includes seven buildings on two parcels, including the 57,860-square-foot Motherhouse, which has 43 bedrooms, and the 16,862-square-foot St. Mary’s Retreat House. The Dominican Sisters first came to Oxford in 1948. They settled on a piece of property that was originally a little more than 800 acres because, according to a January 1998 Leader article, it was beautiful, “close to town” and “offered privacy.”
In April 2009, the Dominican Sisters of Oxford joined with six other Dominican congregations, to form the Dominican Sisters of Peace, which is based in Columbus, Ohio. They put the Oxford property up for sale in late 2019, due to declining number of sisters living in the motherhouse.
The school district became interested after another offer fell through, according to Throne. After investigating the property, and some closed session board discussions, they were ready to publicly move forward with it.
According to the purchase agreement, the price is $2.5 million. “In regards to price and terms and all of that we are still working through that,” Throne said.
The money would come from the capital improvement fund. “Every year we’ve tried to put some money in that (fund) for situations just as this that may come along,” he said.
The board’s resolution allows Throne, or a designee, to execute the purchase agreement and make revisions, subject to review and approval by the district’s legal counsel.
“While we have the framework of the purchase agreement,” Throne said, “obviously within that purchase agreement we have some items listed that we need to do our due diligence. We might find certain things out that we don’t know today. We may find out some additional costs or things that we hadn’t anticipated, so that could impact the ultimate purchase price. There’s numerous things that we need to still negotiate and do our due diligence on before it can be executed.”
The purchase agreement gives a 90 day due diligence period. “I think realistically we’ll take at least 60 days if not all 90 days just to do all the things we need to do with title inspections and all those types of things.” Throne said that he would report back to the board and give a public update along the way.
“Part of our job as a board, as superintendent, is to set the next generation up for success,” said Board Trustee Heather Shafer. “So this might not be something that we’re going to move into the day of closing, like you would a house. But you want to look ahead and set your district up for success, your administration and your next board. You know, we are bursting at the seams in multiple different areas and so when an opportunity presents itself, you have to sometimes plan for the future.”