North Hills School District Plans to Auction Off Excess School Equipment

School equipment left over after the various elementary school renovations projects will go on the virtual auction block in the fall during the district’s first-ever online auctions.

Hostetter Auctioneers of Beaver Falls will oversee the liquidation sale of excess furnishings from the schools. Sale dates will be set by the end of June.

“We have lots of teacher desks, filing cabinets, library shelves and plenty of 20-, 30-and 40-year-old school furniture and equipment for sale,” said David Hall, director of finance and operations for the district.

The district will hold its fall sale after it reopens

“We wanted to wait until Ross is open before making a final decision on what will be sold. We want to make sure we have everything we need, and we don’t want to sell stuff we would’ve used,” Hall said.

The district replaced outdated and worn furniture and fixtures at McIntyre and elementary schools after renovations and expansions in 2009 and 2010. It will do the same at Ross Elementary when that building reopens and will sell the leftover items.

Also to be sold are items left after the closings of Northway Elementary in 2009 and Perrysville and Seville elementary schools in 2010.

The renovations and closings were part of a $51.7 million project to consolidate seven older buildings into four remodeled ones.

Approximately $2.2 million, or 5 percent of each project’s budget, was allotted for purchasing new furniture, fixtures and equipment. That included technology components, such as projectors and interactive whiteboards for each classroom.

Each building’s new furnishings mesh with their updated designs, Hall said.

“We have brand-new buildings. Did we really want to stock [them] with old, mismatched stuff? It would be a shame to open a $16 million building with mismatched items everywhere.

“There were things that fit and things that did not fit. Those are the things being sold," he said. 

District officials and auction-company staff will determine this month the number of items to be sold and the minimum prices for each, said Dan Reeder, an auctioneer at Hostetter Auctioneers.

Once sale items are confirmed, Hostetter staff will catalog, photograph and post images on the company's website, www.hostetterauctioneers.com.

Interested buyers will have a few weeks to debate their purchases before a preview day prior to the auction’s end. As in other online auctions, bidders will receive e-mail notifications alerting them when their current bid has been surpassed.

This auction varies slightly from other online auctions, such as eBay, Reeder said. 

“With our site, if someone bids within the last two minutes, it will extend the auctioning of the item for another two minutes. The person will have a chance to come back until the highest bid is received," he said. "We do that to make it more similar to a regular auction.”

The company orchestrated its first online auction two years ago and recently sold excess materials for the Moon Area School District in Moon Township and the Pittsburgh Public Schools. Moon Area’s auction earned $58,000, said James Heck, the district's director of operations.

More districts are following the lead of those districts, Reeder said.

“It has been a snowball affect. They do so well and are just feeding into one another. There is such a low overhead compared to a live auction.”

In addition to auction marketing that includes signage, email blasts and online advertisements, the company also conducts the preview day and ensures item removal by customers.

“Schools put much less put into it and are getting a better return. It is a win-win for everyone.”

District staff stumbled upon the potentially cost-saving alternative while researching auction firms and their options, Hall said. In an 7-0 vote, school directors hired Hostetter during their May 23 meeting at a cost not to exceed $3,248.

North Hills officials said they hope costs will at least balance expenses -- unlike a previous live auction held in the late 1990s where the district unloaded excess items from junior and senior high school renovations, said Hall.

“I watched entire classroom sets of furniture go for $5. There is no way we generated enough to even pay for the labor of dragging that stuff around," he said.

“Auctions for surplus materials are not money-makers. Essentially, this keeps us from having to pay to put it in a landfill.”