The city wants a say in the fate of Langley Middle School after students are transferred out, officials made clear at Monday night’s Langley City Council meeting.

“That space is very important to the city,” Mayor Paul Samuelson said. “We need to be a partner with them in whatever happens.”

Councilman Robert Gilman said the closure presents a golden opportunity to advance the city’s philosophy of encouraging culture and education.

“It could be quite a dynamic place that would serve all of South Whidbey,” Gilman said.

The South Whidbey School District board of directors voted July 23 to close the middle school and transfer students grades six through eight to South Whidbey High School on Maxwelton Road no later than the fall of 2012.

“We hope to do it sooner than that,” District Superintendent Fred McCarthy told city council members during an update Monday. “We have an aggressive time line.”

The decision to close the school was made as part of cost-cutting measures in the face of a $1.8 million budget shortfall caused mostly by declining enrollment.

McCarthy said a “broad-based committee” would be formed by the end of this month to implement the school board’s decision to bring a bond issue before the voters in February.

He said money from the bond issue, if approved, would be used to remodel the high school so that separation could be maintained between high school and middle school students.

A Tacoma architect who worked on a similar remodel for a Seattle high school has been consulted, McCarthy added. He said that once plans are firm and the money is in place, it would take about 18 months to complete the project before the transfer could be completed.

McCarthy reiterated that the school board has no intention of selling the 23-acre middle school property, which includes eight buildings along Camano Avenue.

He said the board wants to keep its options open in case student demographics change. McCarthy said the district now has twice the amount of space needed for its number of students.

“The choice was to retain programs and staff rather than buildings,” he said.

The property is zoned by the city for public use. McCarthy said preliminary discussion has centered around the idea of turning the school into a community center used by both public and private groups.

Samuelson said the closure also presents an economic opportunity for the city to continue its quest for “experiential” enterprises that bring in visitors and money.

He said the search for new tenants for the city’s surplus fire station, during which there were 15 proposals, “most of them serious,” shows that there would be a lot of interest in the middle school’s spaces. “I don’t think they want an empty building either,” the mayor added of the school board.

Councilwoman Rene Neff asked if the middle school buildings were safe in light of a recent seismic survey that recommended an upgrade.

The survey, completed last fall before the decision was made to close the school, indicated that while the buildings were in no immediate danger from an earthquake, it would take about $2.2 million to bring them up to state standards.

McCarthy said none of the buildings would be leased if they were determined to be unsafe, and that if a new use required a retrofit, the new tenant probably would have to pay for it. McCarthy said there is no intention to include retrofit money in the bond-issue request.

Samuelson urged school officials to honor the history of the middle school, the original Langley High School. And Councilman Bob Waterman, chairman of the city’s historic preservation commission, urged that the original 75-year-old building be placed on the city’s register of historic places.

Samuelson said he would continue to work with school officials to find the best new uses for the property. “You have a partner,” he told McCarthy.