Six New Orleans school buildings hit the market for $10M. They sold for far less.

Six pieces of surplus real estate owned by the Orleans Parish School Board, including an Art Deco school building in the Warehouse District, will be sold at a fraction of their appraised price after the board narrowly voted to accept bids for the properties it received at a recent auction.

The properties, which include the 87-year-old former L.E. Rabouin Memorial School at 727 Carondelet St., will generate a total of $3.7 million for the cash-strapped School Board.

Earlier this year, the properties were estimated collectively to be worth more than $10 million.

The board’s experience underscores the challenges that New Orleans school systems, churches, governments and other institutions face when trying to sell off unused and aging properties to generate cash.

“We’ve been sitting on s