Committee of the Whole Meeting - April 20, 2026: Purchase of Madison School
Committee of the Whole Meeting – April 20, 2026
The Committee of the Whole of the Manitowoc City Council met on Monday, April 20, 2026, at 6:00 PM to discuss and act on a single agenda item: the potential purchase of the former Madison School property from the Manitowoc Public School District (MPSD). Community Development Director Adam Tegen and MPSD Superintendent Lee Thennes presented background and procedural details. No public comments were made.
Discussion Items
- Offer to Purchase Madison School (Agenda Item 26-0365): Adam Tegen explained that the city approached the school district after the closure announcement to express interest in the property. The proposed purchase price is $1.00. If acquired, city staff would conduct a request-for-proposals process to determine the highest and best use. Superintendent Lee Thennes outlined the school district’s required approval steps: a special board meeting on April 28, a Finance and Facilities Committee review on May 5, and full board action on May 12.
Key Outcomes
- Vote: Councilmember DeBaets moved, and Councilmember Sitkiewitz seconded, a motion to authorize staff to execute all documents to purchase the Madison School property from MPSD for $1.00 and complete the transaction. The motion passed unanimously by a vote of 10–0, with Alder Norell absent.
- Next Steps: Upon city approval, the offer will be presented to the MPSD Board for its own approval process over the following weeks.
Meeting Transcript
I thought he emailed you. Like or no, he said about personnel like this started to have the city. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Six, it is six o'clock, so six oh one, so we're gonna get the committee of the whole meeting started. Uh for calling to order, everybody is present except for Alder Norrell, who's excused for tonight. Before we get on to the public comment though, I just want to let all the others know with the new system uh that we have. Uh right now everybody's mics are on with the green. So um they get all turned on right away at the beginning. So if you want to make sure that the green light is off, then it won't pick it up. If you need to talk, press the button, turn the green light on, and obviously it'll be live over the over the speakers. So that is a change from what we have. All right, so then we'll get on to public comments. Is there anybody in the audience that'd like to speak to the committee of the whole for public comment? Going once, anybody online? Going twice, three times public comment is closed. All right, then we're gonna get on to our discussion and action items. So then with that, I'll turn it over to uh Adam Tegan. But then also we got uh Lee Tennis up here. If you want to also step up as well and be part of the conversation, you can't do that. All right. Uh so obviously the item on your agenda is the potential to purchase Madison School. Uh, when the announcement was made that Madison was going to be closed, uh, the city um staff did approach the school district just to see what the intentions were and during those discussions. Um, it was made clear that the city would have an interest in what happened with that property in the future just because it is a unique piece of property, and we wanted to make sure that the best interests of the city were considered during that discussion. Uh so after some back and forth conversations on that potential, uh, we feel that we are on the same page and that the school district is willing to consider uh offer to purchase from the city. Uh, we are proposing that that offer be at one dollar, which is the offer to purchase that is attached to the agenda. Uh, if this purchase does go through, basically city staff would work um to figure out the highest and best use on that. Most likely that would include a request for a proposal type of process to see what options are out there. Um so ultimately that's the background. I'm obviously more than happy to answer any questions you may have. I'm obviously more than happy to answer any questions you may have but the recommendation is to authorize city staff to complete all aspects of a potential purchase of Madison School. Okay thank you Adam before we open up for questions do you have anything to add uh first of all just thank you and uh thanks for considering um we uh have a specific um policy around obtaining what's called real property for the district so just in terms of procedure if you do uh make the offer tonight we would receive it as a board on a special meeting um on the 28th of this month um that requires what it has to land on the agenda of the board and then the board sends it to its finance and facilities committee uh which meets on may 5th um and at that committee meeting um the finance and facilities committee will review it um and then make a recommendation to the full board uh on the 12th of may just procedurally how our end of this works okay thank you for that i'll open up to the um rest of the uh committee is there any questions that anybody has none any over here okay then what we'd be looking for is uh the official um motion would be move for move to approve the request for staff to execute all documents to purchase the Madison school property from MPSD for purchase price of one dollar and complete the transaction so moved second uh who who had been move all their debates good and second by all the Sikwitz okay is there any discussion all those in favor aye any opposed passes unanimously okay that would conclude the business that we have for the committee of the whole be looking for a motion to adjourn so moved second we are adjourned it's easy
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