Marble City School Board has begun negotiations to purchase Indian allotment land on which it built several facilities.

The school built its cafeteria, basketball court, running track, propane tanks and playground equipment on land owned by the Esther Flute family.

The school has been using 3.16 acres of that property. The family does not want to sell more than 1.57 acres of the restricted property to the school.

School Superintendent Larry Couch was notified in July by the U.S. Solicitor’s Office in Tulsa that the district had encroached on the property. The Solicitor’s Office said in subsequent letters that Couch never responded.

Couch could not be reached for comment. He has been charged with embezzling $100,000 from the school. Although he is employed, he has been on medical leave since August.

The Solicitor’s Office wrote a school attorney in September. He replied he was no longer the school’s attorney.

Last month, the Solicitor’s Office wrote board members that the government would be compelled to initiate administrative trespass proceedings and/or referral of the matter to the U.S. attorney for action in federal district court if the school didn’t answer.

The Flute family is asking $33,430 for the property it is willing to sell to the school. Other property could be covered by an access easement.

The Interior Department wants the school to bear the costs of abstracting or title work, survey costs, and costs of staking and fencing the property.

“Although Mr. Couch may still be authorized to communicate regarding this matter, we do not believe it would be productive to correspond with him given his past disregard for the rights of these landowners and other recent events,” U.S. Field Solicitor Alan R. Woodcock wrote the board last month.

The board this week told Rex Earl Starr, the recently appointed attorney for Marble City School, to immediately begin negotiations with the U.S. Department of the Interior.

The senior assistant attorney general for the Cherokee Nation, Nason N. Morton, attended Marble City’s board meeting Tuesday night so he could report what progress was being made on the encroachment issue, he said.

Board member Raymond Bolin said Couch had not disclosed the encroachment to him or mentioned it in a board meeting.

“The matter needs to be resolved,” Bolin said.