Rio School District officials have decided to look for potential tenants to lease El Rio School, a 56-year-old campus that closed at the end of the school year.

Trustees of the K-8 district declared the Vineyard Avenue school as surplus property at a meeting Monday night and signed off on a sample lease agreement, directing district staff members to look for possible tenants.

A new elementary school opened a few blocks away last fall in the new RiverPark housing development, and dozens of El Rio School students moved to the campus last year. In February, district trustees agreed to close El Rio when the 2006-07 school year ended.

The 4,100-student district has no intention of selling the school site, said Superintendent Sherianne Cotterell. Instead, it wants to lease the property on a short-term basis.

"We're doing this to bring in much-needed revenue," Cotterell said, but "it's very likely we'll need El Rio again."

The school is one of several properties the district vacated this year, including the former district office on Cortez Street and an office annex on Santa Clara Avenue.

The district staff moved into new headquarters on Vineyard Avenue north of Highway 101.

Both the Cortez and Santa Clara facilities also were declared surplus property this week, and, Cotterell said, the district likely will consider leasing those properties as well.

Rio officials also are interested in discussing a possible sale or trade of their transportation yard next to El Rio School but stopped short of declaring it surplus because it is still being used.

A facilities advisory committee, which included district residents, met three times this month to determine the amount of surplus property and establish a priority list of possible uses. Recommendations were forwarded to the school board Monday, but several committee members criticized the process.

Among other complaints, they said the meetings weren't recorded, and they didn't have adequate time to make sure their recommendations were clearly presented to the school board and the community.

Bert Perello, committee chairman, said the experience has convinced him that he should never again volunteer for any Rio committees.

While the committee did recommend the properties be declared surplus, members said the district office, annex and El Rio School should not be sold.

Cotterell, who said she also was disappointed that the staff did not record the meetings, told trustees they could further discuss the committee's recommendations at a future meeting.

In the meantime, however, she recommended the board declare the properties as surplus and allow the staff to start looking for tenants. The empty buildings already have been vandalized — a situation that likely will worsen the longer the facilities remain vacant, she said.

The board agreed, but several trustees said they were concerned about the committee's complaints.

Trustee Tim Blaylock said he wanted the board to look at creating a policy to make sure similar problems don't happen again.

"I'm very embarrassed," he said. "I want community participation."