The Oconto Falls School District’s effort to clear its name from a 130-year-old deed took a surprising twist Aug. 4 when an attorney informed the district it no longer owns the property.
The School Board in recent months has discussed the future of the land on the city’s west side where Jefferson School once stood. John and Alnusa Volk sold the property in 1884, although the deed wasn’t recorded until 1888, with the condition that it revert to the original owners or their heirs once it’s no longer used for educational purposes.
The school closed in 1995, thus ending the district’s ownership of the property, according to a legal opinion provided by attorney Thomas Rohan, of Davis Kuelthau Attorneys at Law.
“The reversion language in the deed requires no notice of other condition before the property reverts to the grantors or their heirs, but instead requires only that the property cease to be used as a school,” he wrote in a letter discussed Aug. 18 by the Oconto Falls School Board.
He said the school district might have trespassed on the land in 2002 to tear down the building.
The school-owned property has been incorporated into the city’s Pine Grove Park, and School Board members have discussed selling or donating the property.
School officials in June asked the Oconto Falls City Council to consider taking ownership of the parcel. Oconto Falls city attorney Larry Jeske asked to see the legal paperwork associated with the property before he made a recommendation to the council.
The School Board on Aug. 18 agreed to forward the legal opinion to Jeske but took no other action.
Rohan outlined two directions for the School Board to consider, although the first option, to contact all of the Volk heirs to clear the title, was pursued unsuccessfully in 1996 when 40 heirs were identified. This option was estimated to cost at least several thousand dollars.
The second option is to notify the county and city that the property has reverted to the Volk heirs. This would be accomplished by filing an affidavit with the register of deeds to certify the property is no longer used for educational purposes.
“We do not know how the county would proceed, given the same issues the district would face,” Rohan wrote, “but it is possible the county would simply identify one or two local heirs of the property and list them as owners and send them the tax bills.”
If these bills go unpaid, the property, worth about $10,000, could be subject to a tax sale, Rohan wrote.
The property in question is one of two lots the district owns at the Jefferson School site. The second lot has no restrictions for its use or sale.
The Oconto Falls Area Heritage Center has approached the school district about moving the vacant Spruce School, a two-room schoolhouse, to the Jefferson School property. The fledgling organization is raising funds to purchase Spruce School, relocate it and open it for historical tours.
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