Cathedral of Faith Gundry school.jpg
Cathedral of Faith Ministries will purchase the old Gundry school from the Flint School District for $30,000.
(Dominic Adams | MLive.com)
FLINT, MI -- A shuttered Flint school on the city's north side was sold to a church run by a former school board president for $30,000 on Wednesday, Nov. 20.
The board voted 8-1 to sell the closed Gundry school to Cathedral of Faith Ministries Church of God.
The district has been leasing Gundry school to Cathedral of Faith Ministries for the last five years.
Gundry, at 6031 Dupont St., was built in 1955 and closed after the 2008 school year.
Cathedral of Faith pays $2,400 per month for rent, which includes $500 toward utilities, and has paid $115,000 to the district since 2008.
Pastor Chris Martin, former school board president, leads the church.
Martin resigned from the board as president in 2005 to take a job as a statewide youth pastor and to spend more time with his family, according to The Flint Journal archives.
While the $30,000 purchase price will chip away at the district's $15.8 million deficit, board member David Davenport said that the annual rental revenue was more and also was built into the deficit elimination plan.
"I want to applaud you for what you do in the community," Davenport said. "To this date you have paid a substantial amount. That is something we need because it was budgeted into our deficit elimination plan... Where do we get that money from? I just can't accept that. I just don't see where we're going to get this other money from."
Acting Chief Financial Officer Jawun Nelson said the rental of the buildings was included in the deficit elimination plan.
"Part of our overall goal is to focus on the education of kids and get out of these side jobs," he said. "We'll just have to make up other areas."
It costs $50,000 annually for insurance on all of the district's the building, officials said.
"We're going to continue to be accessible to that community," Martin said following the vote.
Dominic Adams is a reporter for The Flint Journal. Contact him at dadams5@mlive.com or 810-241-8803. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.