USD 336 to hold "semi-silent" auction at former Fair Building

When construction of the new Holton Elementary School was completed, old equipment — chairs, desks, cabinets, et cetera — from the former Colorado and Central elementary schools in Holton was set aside and new equipment was purchased and placed into the new classrooms.

That left the Holton school district with a sizable amount of surplus, which district officials are looking forward to auctioning off this weekend to the old schools’ former students — or anyone else interested in collecting what Holton USD 336 Superintendent Robert Davies called “a piece of history.”

The district is hosting a “semi-silent auction” from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. this Saturday at the former Jackson County 4-H Fair Building at Fifth Street and Dakota Avenue. The public is invited to participate in the auction.

Davies said the goal in holding the auction is to attempt to recover some of the funds used to purchase the equipment — and doing it locally rather than putting it up for auction online.

“We used tax dollars to buy some of this stuff,” he said. “If we’re only going to get pennies on the dollar for it, why not let our people have a chance at it first?”

A sizable amount of the equipment on the list of items to be sold Saturday involves chairs, tables, desks and other equipment from the two elementary schools that were closed when the new Holton Elementary School opened in the fall of 2016. Some of that equipment, Davies said, may still hold some sentimental value for those schools’ former students.

“I’m hoping what will help sell most of it is, ‘You know, I remember those chairs in the library!’ People can get a piece of the old Colorado School or the old Central School, or something from the high school,” he said. “Most of the stuff looks like it was made for younger kids. But I think there’s going to be stuff that came from the high school and the middle school.”

The above corrects an error that appeared in the Nov. 1 print edition.