Lot of conflicting information there. Are they willing sellers as the school board maintains or not? Are those dozen protesters actually the owner or just tea party minimalist government activists who have picked this as a cause.
If valued at $4M and paid $5M, its hard to call the govt. the bad guy in this. As noted by others, it probably wouldn't sell as a golf course for more than $1-2M tops. If the land is worth more raw, then maybe but it is probably the best deal they will get.
While we all hate for golf courses to close, and love to cast the govt. as villains the local guys probably studied a lot of sites and decided this was the best deal after consideration. Of course, I don't know the facts but when the newspaper can't get comments from the golf owner and others speak for him, I think maybe there is more smoke than fire. Again, the county calls them a willing seller and the price seems fair, at least based on the news article.