MILWAUKEE – From the beginning, critics of a Milwaukee Public Schools plan to sell the vacant Malcolm X School building to a local developer thought it seemed pretty shady.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

They thought it was obvious that the school district was hurriedly selling the building to a private sector interest in a deceptive transaction, to avoid having to sell it to a local private school.

Now critics believe they have evidence to support that theory, based on a series of emails regarding the deal that were secured from the Milwaukee school district.

Among other things, the emails suggest that the sale was being rushed to beat the adoption of a state law that might have forced the district to sell the building to a private school.

The emails also show that at least one city official was disturbed because MPS violated city policy by agreeing to sell the building without going through the mandatory bidding process.

Critics also note that there is no evidence in the emails, or elsewhere, indicating that the sale was ever finalized. They wonder if MPS officials dropped the entire idea when state legislation that would have given private and charter schools first dibs at public school property failed to gain approval.

A statement issued by an MPS spokesman indicated that negotiations of the sale are ongoing, but offered no timeline for closing, or for the opening of a new MPS school that was supposed to be housed in part of the building.

As one critic of the deal noted, if MPS had accepted an offer from a private school that accepts state vouchers for tuition, the building could have housed a school serving city children this fall. Instead it will probably remain empty, due to the school district’s hesitation to allow more private school space in Milwaukee.

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

An ongoing war over students

MPS and private schools in the city have been battling to attract students for years. Many children have been able to attend private schools through the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, which allows them to use their share of state education dollars toward private school tuition.

MPS officials obviously resent the loss of students to private schools, and the loss of state revenue they experience every time a student leaves.

About 25,000 children are enrolled in private schools through the state voucher program, while thousands more choose to attend public charter schools.

But MPS has one major advantage over the private schools – the lack of available school space in Milwaukee. The city would probably have more private schools participating in the voucher program – as well as more charter schools – if there was more available classroom space.

MPS holds a trump card in that respect, because it has more than enough space. The district closed numerous schools over the years as it lost more students to the voucher program. The district currently claims it has 15 empty buildings with three on the market. All 15 have attracted the interest of private and voucher schools, but none have been sold to any voucher or independent charter schools.

A few have been transferred to charter schools that are operated by the school district and hire union teachers.

It seems obvious that the district does not want more competition for students from voucher or independent charter schools. MPS board chairman Michael Bonds has been quoted as saying that the district selling vacant buildings to choice schools would be like “asking the Coca-Cola Company to turn over its facilities to Pepsi.”

That’s true enough. But Coca-Cola is a private company competing for profits with Pepsi. The school buildings of Milwaukee were built by taxpayers for the benefit of the city’s children. And thousands of children want to transfer to private charter schools under the state program, or charter schools. If MPS does not need these buildings, they should go to a school that can use them to serve students.

The nearby St. Marcus Lutheran Academy started inquiring about the Malcolm X building about 18 months ago and reportedly made an offer, but Milwaukee school officials looked in another direction.

The district arranged a deal to sell the building to a private company called LLC Holdings for $2.1 million. But the transaction – if it has been finalized – is not as simple as it sounds.

Under terms of the deal, the purchaser would develop half of the space for “residential, retail and commercial” use. The school district would lease the other half of the building to establish a new public school, paying the developer $1 million per year for up to four years.

At the end of the four years the school district would have the option to repurchase the entire building for $4 million, with credit for the rent it had paid over the previous four years.

Why does this deal sound suspicious? Critics picture the scenario playing out this way: The company gives MPS $2.1 million for the building, then the MPS turns around and pays the company $4 million for four years of rent. The company recovers its initial investment and uses the balance to renovate the structure. At the end of four years the district gets the building back for the $4 million it paid in rent.

The deal would be a wash for everyone. Why wouldn’t the district just keep the building and pay for the renovations itself, with the money it would otherwise pay in rent?

Perhaps because the district wanted to put the title of the building in a different name, so it could beat the adoption of a new state law that was pending in the legislature last year that would force public schools selling buildings to give preference to private or charter schools.

The most damning part of the proposed deal (which was confirmed by school officials) was a deed restriction obviously meant to prevent the future owner from allowing private or charter schools to utilize the building.

“Property shall not be used for any use that has the effect of diminishing the annual average number of pupils enrolled in Milwaukee Public Schools,” the deed restriction said.

MPS officials are clearly more concerned about enrollment numbers, and their stream of state revenue, than they are about quality educational opportunities for children.

Emails support ‘dirty deal’ claims

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), a leading critic of the proposed deal, filed an open records request to secure copies of emails sent to and from school officials regarding the proposed sale of the Malcolm X building.

The school district initially refused to turn the records over, claiming public disclosure would hurt their real estate sale negotiation strategy, but then WILL filed a lawsuit and the district promptly supplied the emails.

Several of the communications seem to support the idea that the proposed sale of the building was designed to avoid a sale to St. Marcus.

There are numerous phrases used between various parties, citing a “condensed timeframe” to complete the deal and how “time is of the essence.” Those phrases were presumably used in response to the pending state law that might have forced the district to sell the building to the private school.

Milwaukee school committee member Larry Miller, an opponent of the private school voucher program, was explicit in one email, writing “…Clouding the process is the pressure from the state legislature concerning MPS facilities. This had put undue burden on a process that should have a natural course. I ask for your support for quick action on the Malcolm X sale.”

One city alderman, Robert Bauman, may have recognized how the district was pressing for a quick sale to avoid having to sell to St. Marcus. He wrote in an email that he had “major concerns about the developer that has been chosen” to buy the building, and more significantly, that he considered the proposed transaction “unnecessarily complex for apparently political reasons.”

The last two MPS buildings that were sold, Jackie Robinson and Dover schools, went through the bidding process, according to WILL.

Bauman also raised objections in an email about the school district’s failure to comply with a city policy that says, “Consistent with general city procedures for the sale of commercial property, all MPS property will be offered for sale initially through a competitive request for proposal (RFP). The use of the RFP process allows all eligible parties to be considered for the property.”

Bauman wrote, “I would have preferred an RFP process for the portion of the property that is intended for residential/commercial development rather than a sole source transaction.”

Officials from WILL also note that there is no evidence that the sale of Malcolm X to LLC Holdings was ever finalized. The material turned over to the law firm through the open records request contains no documents indicating closure of the transaction.

As part of the deal, the developer was supposed to apply for federal tax credits to make the renovation of the building less expensive, but no such application has ever been filed, according to WILL.

In a statement released to Wisconsin Reporter, MPS spokesman Tony Tagliavia wrote, “It is in the best interest of MPS and taxpayers to coordinate the closing on the real estate, closing on financing and the approval of the final lease concurrently. Because negotiations are still underway, we would not be able to provide anything beyond our comments here, but any timeline changes would come back to the (school) board once the negotiations are completed. As for tax credits, we cannot speak for the developer.”

Is it possible that the deal was never finalized, and the application for tax credits never filed, because the legislation that would have forced MPS to sell to a private or charter school was not passed by the legislature last year? Did MPS officials let the deal die because they figured they were no longer in danger of having to sell to St. Marcus Lutheran?

If so, MPS officials could be in for a surprise. Another version of the legislation has been approved by the Wisconsin Assembly, and could be up for a vote by the State Senate this week. If it were to pass, and Gov. Scott Walker were to sign it (which based on his support for school choice seems likely), MPS might be in a position of having to give St. Marcus, or another alternative school, first dibs on buying Malcolm X.

Perhaps school officials should have been watching the news from the state capitol a little more closely.