The Kennett Consolidated School District board on Oct. 13 voted to reconstitute the Kennett Square Area School Authority and appoint six members so the authority can transfer property deeds and satisfy a condition tied to a $1,700,000 Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grant for New Garden Elementary School.

The board appointed Sandra Ramos and Catherine King (borough of Kennett Square), Jen Miller and Elizabeth Weaver (Kennett Township), and Dean Ivory and Lorenzo De Angelis (New Garden Township) to four-year terms on the authority. The motion carried on a voice vote; individual vote tallies were not recorded in the public transcript.

The action responds to a compliance finding during the RACP grant review. Mr. Tracy, a district staff member leading the explanation to the board, said the district discovered a deed for New Garden Elementary identified the property owner as the Kennett Square Area School Authority rather than the district, and that state reviewers flagged the discrepancy.

"We needed to provide a deed of New Garden Elementary School, which was locked away in our safe deposit box, so we pulled that. And the deed actually has the name of the Kennett Square Area School Authority," Tracy said, describing the research that followed to reconstruct the authority's historical record and to design a remedy.

Tracy said the newly appointed authority will meet Wednesday at noon in a public session to elect officers, transfer the deeds for Mary D. Lang, New Garden, Greenwood and Kennett High School from the authority to the Kennett Consolidated School District, and then disband the authority. He said the district's solicitor and outside counsel had supported the process and that county recording of deed transfers will lift the flag of noncompliance on the RACP grant.

President Cronenberg thanked Tracy and district staff for the archival research and said the board would not serve as members of the authority to avoid conflicts; the appointees include district employees who are also residents. "This was a wacky one," Cronenberg said, praising the administrative work that reconstructed the chain of title.

The board's motion did not include a timetable for recording the deeds with the Chester County Recorder of Deeds beyond the immediate public meeting and officer appointments; the transcript shows the district expects to file the deeds after the authority meeting and officer signatures.

The district did not provide the transcript with documented roll-call tallies for the appointment vote. The board noted the KSASA meeting is publicly posted on the district website and encouraged community members to attend the noon meeting.

Ending: The authority meeting is scheduled this Wednesday at noon at the district building; the board said the deed transfer is intended to resolve the state grant condition so bond or grant proceeds for the New Garden project can be used without further compliance restrictions.