A new battle is brewing over what to do about an historic downtown Melbourne building.

The Old Melbourne High School was constructed back in 1926, but these days, it sits empty, with broken glass, graffiti and boarded up windows.

Right next store is the Henegar Center for the Arts, which owns the building.

Henegar Center volunteer executive director Wendy Brandon says the school building hasn't been used in the past five decades. She says they have tried to restore it, but they just haven't had the $3 million–$4 million needed to renovate it.

"That building cannot be restored," said Brandon. "It would be more expensive to restore it than it would be to bulldoze it down and create a replica building."

So, the Henegar Center wants to sell it to a local developer who has been working with the city on building a multimillion-dollar apartment complex.

But some residents and former students of the old high school are now asking for a time out from both sides, hoping they can come up with a way to save the historic building.

"This is an opportunity for the city of Melbourne to establish something here having to do with the arts and culture, which is also a stimulus for economic development," said Spence Guerin, a graduate of the high school who has been leading the charge to save the building.

The school board will decide Tuesday, March 10, if it will allow the property to be used for a non-public use.

Organizers of the campaign to save the school are hosting a "paint-out" Thursday, hoping to bring attention to the issue by having artists paint pictures of the historic school.