By Kathryn Reed

ZEPHYR COVE – While people have expressed interest in buying the former Kingsbury Middle School site, no one has put in an offer. And that has the Douglas County school board worried.

Even sitting vacant, the 36,000-square-feet of building space is costing DCSD more than $10,000 a month.

The Douglas County School District board first voted to put the 10-acre site on the market in January 2012. It comes with a cafeteria-commercial kitchen, full-size gymnasium, locker room and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency required BMPs.

At the next meeting the board will have a discussion about whether the $4 million asking price should be changed. That conversation did not happen at the Oct. 8 meeting because board members Cindy Trigg and Ross Chichester were absent.

In the meantime, Superintendent Lisa Noonan will also contact the two companies that appraised the site to see if they would say the asking price is above or below the current market rate. It was appraised at $4 million.

Noonan told the board on Tuesday that she has met with one group multiple times.

“My sense is they are serious,” she said.

Declining enrollment forced the district’s hand to close the school. It was fall 2008 that the district went to two schools at the lake.

And student numbers continue to go down, but not as dramatically as years past.

“This is the first year we have not had a true or significant decline in enrollment,” CFO Holly Luna said.

Districtwide enrollment is down four students this year from last year or 0.1 percent. However, at Lake Tahoe there are 32 fewer students for a 7.7 percent drop from 2012-13. The decline at the lake is the highest since 2008-09.