BELLAIRE — Potential new life has been breathed in the building that housed the former St. John Central High School.

St. John Central Academy finance manager Vince Gianangeli said that the School Board is currently in communications with an out-of-state buyer who plans to finalize the deal by the end of November.

If finalized, the buyer will be entering a business partnership with a Wheeling resident to purchase the school building.

Gianangeli added that due to the deal not being finalized there is not much information he is able to provide to the public but is happy that progress is being made. Although nothing is final, the plan is said for the new potential buyer to operate a school out of the building.

Opened as St. John Central High School in 1857 as part of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Steubenville it operated until 2019, when the diocese announced it would close.

Following the closure in 2019, a private committee established St. John Central Academy in the fall of 2019 by purchasing the school from the Diocese for $1.

The academy operated the school until its closure this past June. It was able to operate through a combination of a private benefactor and scholarship funds from the state of Ohio.

As enrollment declined so did the state funds the school could receive. Following the decline in funding the private benefactor then decided to step away from financially giving to the school.

When the academy announced its closure it left the building in limbo. Gianangeli said that the school had a $100,000 line of credit that he has been attempting to pay back by selling off virtually everything inside of the building.

Since the talks of this out of state buyer, Gianangeli has stopped selling the items inside of the school due to the buyer expressing interest in buying the items that have not been sold yet.

He added that once more information is available to be released he will inform the public.