Topeka ? Despite past failures to find financing, two groups are still interested in redeveloping a former school linked to the U.S. Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education decision.

The city of Topeka owns the Sumner Elementary School building and is trying to find a buyer.

Last year, the City Council told Pioneer Group Inc. it could convert the building into housing for seniors. But Pioneer couldn’t obtain the state tax credits it needed.

Then, the city turned to Community First, which wanted to create a charter school and community hub. It missed two deadlines to line up the financing.

City staff are recommending that the property be auctioned off.

Sandra Lassiter, Community First’s secretary, said she hopes the City Council rejects an auction and allows her group to buy the building.

“What is very key is that if you don’t own the property, it’s difficult to get loans and to get grants,” she said.

Still, she said, if there is an auction, her group will bid.

“We’re too far out there now to back down,” Lassiter said. “I believe we can get the backers.”

Ross Freeman, president of the Pioneer Group, said his company probably would bid on the building if the conditions of the auction process aren’t too onerous.

Built in 1935, Sumner was an all-white school. In 1950, local members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decided to challenge segregated schools in federal court, and black parents tried to enroll their children in white schools.

The Rev. Oliver Brown sought to enroll his daughter, Linda, at Sumner and became a plaintiff in the resulting lawsuit. The case, consolidated with lawsuits from three other states, led to the 1954 decision in which the Supreme Court said segregated schools were unconstitutional.

Parents reopened the Brown case in 1979, and it eventually led to a court-ordered desegregation plan. Sumner closed in 1996 as part of that plan.

In May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation named Sumner as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in America.

The black school that Linda Brown attended, Monroe Elementary School, is now the site of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site. The school closed in 1975 because of declining enrollment.