Two former Clark-Shawnee elementary schools will be abated and demolished in the coming weeks and months.

Abatement at Possum Elementary School has begun and will take three to five weeks to complete, while abatement at Reid Elementary School will start next week and also take three to five weeks to complete, according to Megan Anthony, the district’s communications coordinator.

Once abatement is done at each school, demolition will begin and take three weeks for both buildings.

The new elementary opened last fall as the new school for all preschool through sixth-graders. It is located at the northeast corner of Selma and Possum roads, across the street from the middle and high school.

The district vacated Possum, Rockway and Reid elementary schools, and held an online auction for loose furnishing inside the three buildings that included furniture, playground equipment, modular classrooms, equipment and more.

Possum and Reid will be abated and demolished, and Rockway was auctioned off and sold to Exponential Genomics, Inc., for $394,000, according to Anthony.

Exponential Genomics (Xenomics) bought the former Rockway building to repurpose it as an innovative research and development facility. The company is an innovative technology company that tackles complex sustainability issues that address feeding, fueling and healing society, according to David Preiner, CEO of Exponential Genomics. It’s based in Rhode Island but seeking to expand in the Springfield Twp. area.

Clark-Shawnee held a groundbreaking ceremony in October 2018 to kick off construction of their $52 million pre-K through sixth grade school building. Voters approved a $37 million bond issue in August 2017 to build a new elementary school and renovate the middle/high school. The bond issue was for 5.3 mills for 37 years and will cost the owner of a $100,000 home a little more than $15 a month. The state covered about 30%, or $15 million, of the cost of the project.

Brooke Spurlock covers education and crime in Clark and Champaign counties as a journalist for the Springfield News-Sun. She has been a writer for a few years, which includes her previous work as a breaking news desk investigator. Spurlock has her BA in mass communications with a minor in psychology and her AAS in paralegal.