• Swartz Creek schools voted not to accept a $40 million offer for an elementary building
• The developer of the Flint-area megasite seeks the property and would use a portion of its $261 million in state funds to buy it
• The offer came two years after negotiations that did not reach the full board until May, prompting a vote to pursue an internal investigation

SWARTZ CREEK — School officials on Wednesday rejected a $40 million offer to sell an elementary building Michigan officials are eyeing to create a 1,300-acre megasite southwest of Flint.

The Swartz Creek Board of Education voted down the offer during a contentious meeting in which a parent revealed documents showing the school board president was among officials who’d privately explored the deal months before it was disclosed.

After declining the offer to sell Morrish Elementary, board members said they would consider a counter-offer from the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. The group is using $261 million in taxpayer funding to assemble the megasite in the hopes of attracting a large advanced manufacturer.

In July, semiconductor company Sandisk said it had considered the site, but withdrew from committing to building its $63 billion project in Michigan.

Despite the setback, an effort led by the state continues to assemble land for the 2 square-mile megasite in Mundy Township.

The school board, in turn, voted unanimously Wednesday to hire a law firm to investigate whether procedures were followed during two years of quiet negotiations to sell the 400-student school.

“For 18 months, nobody knew what was going on,” Trustee Ken Engle said about the period when the full board and community at large were unaware that administrators were negotiating a price for the building, a replacement school, the design for the school and a possible site to build it.

“Nothing was discussed at this table.”

Anger and frustration erupted in a nearly six-hour meeting.