ARGENTA - The old vehicle's seen better days.

It sat parked outside Argenta-Oreana Elementary School for months before Principal Susan Fustin finally asked the board of education if they would do something about it.

Superintendent Damian Jones told the board that he could sell it or scrap it, and the price would be about the same either way, considering its condition.

Last summer, he placed an ad in the Herald & Review to sell a Quonset hut, two storage units and some items from the middle school kitchen.

"If we are unable to sell an item that is no longer necessary to the district, I ask the board to formally authorize me to dispose of the unneeded item," Jones said.

The Illinois School Code allows school boards to sell anything the district no longer needs. The board may hand this responsibility to the superintendent and can direct that person to sell to the highest bidder, or the board can set a minimum price.

In Decatur, old desks, furniture and equipment are stored in a warehouse across the street from the Keil Administration Building until they can be auctioned off or he can find them a new home, said Randy Dotson, director of purchasing.

As is the case with anyone's castoffs, one school's trash could be another one's treasure. Often a "surplus" desk at one building can be used somewhere else. If not, the district sells it.

"Sometimes we do the auction in-house," Dotson said. "With Roosevelt (Middle School), we did it on site. The advantages to that are, we make more money and have better security."

Other items are turned over to a professional auctioneer, and Dotson said the district often uses Mike Hall Auctions because Hall is willing to hold Saturday sales, which makes it easier for district employees to attend, as well as other working folk who couldn't attend a weekday sale.

Deciding what to do with such items, whether to use them at another district site or sell them, is Dotson's responsibility.

"Usually the stuff we're talking about, a desk or something, may have only cost $80 to start with, and it's 30 years old," Dotson said. "I'm empowered to make those decisions."

Computers are in service for four to eight years, as long as the district can get use out of them, said Max Burgstahler, director of management information systems. Once the equipment is retired, if the parts are compatible with computers still in use, his staff harvests the parts. When there's a large surplus, they've held employee auctions to allow district staff to buy them, and some have been refurbished and offered to students as prizes for reading, something that will be done again in the 2008-09 school year.

"We very rarely throw anything away," Burgstahler said. "We always try to squeeze every last ounce of value."

Mount Zion schools have a deal with the company from which they lease computers: Whatever they can't sell to students, parents or the community at the end of the four-year lease cycle, they can send back to the company. However, there usually aren't many left.

"Out of 200 computers, we might send back 40 or 50," said Superintendent Darbe Brinkoetter.

The computers are sold for about $150 because they're four years old, she said, and the district finds plenty of people who want them. As for other items, such as desks or books, the district tries to find those a new home.

"First, we try to find somebody that can use them," she said. "One of the churches works with a ministry where they take items we can't use and take them to other entities that can use them."

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.