ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The St. Clairsville Board of Education discussed signing a lease agreement between the district and the East Central Ohio Educational Service Center if the ECOESC is the successful bidder to purchase the Health and Physical Education Center on the campus of Ohio University Eastern.

“The facility is going to change hands. It is no longer going to be owned by Ohio University. OU has decided to sell it. The ECOESC is going to make a bid on it, and we’re trying to work out a lease with the ECOESC so that we don’t lose that opportunity to use that facility,” board member Jim Cook explained.

Efforts to contact the ECOESC for comment on its plans for the facility were unsuccessful last week. OUE Dean David Rohall directed a request for comment from the university to a media contact at the main campus in Athens.

An email to that contact went unanswered on Friday.

The school district has previously used the space for academic and athletic events.

“I think our motivation is also that we had been using that facility as an auxiliary area for a lot of our activities because we don’t have the facilities to do everything in-house. So we have to branch out and count heavily on the OUE site. For us, we’re trying to provide services for our children as they participate in programs,” board member William Zanders said.

Zanders said students can use the space for various activities and practices.

“It is a critical area for even nonathletic activities. It’s a band site, a fine arts site for practices and so on and so forth. As time goes by, we might even expand the need for additional space outside of our current facility,” he said.

The school board discussed signing a 10-year lease, and the board can opt out of the agreement at any time after five years with a 90-day notice.

“We need a second gym. That kind of serves as our quote-unquote second gym. If we were to actually construct one or find another one before that five years is up, we do have an opt-out option,” Cook said.

Zanders said that the school district would not have the space to house many practices and events without the gym.

“That site at Ohio University has become a very important auxiliary area for us in terms of being able to meet the needs based upon limitations that we face within our district now,” Zanders said.

Board member Michael Fador said that the Health and Physical Education Center is a valuable resource for students.

“I think it’s something that we have to consider for the future because no matter what, we need stopgap measures that will help us over the next few years to see where we’re going to head. … I think that we need to take a look at what’s best for our kids,” he said.

The Health and Physical Education Center is located at 45425 National Road in St. Clairsville.

According to Ohio University’s website, the gym was built in 1997 and is a 50,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility that features a 3,500-seat arena, fitness center, classrooms, meeting spaces and the exercise physiology laboratory.