BENTONVILLE, Ark. — For the past two years, school leaders say they've had some trouble with hiring and keeping teachers, because affordable housing in the city is hard to find. So they're going to try something you don't see many school districts do.
"I know that if you've been within the community within the last two years then you've probably heard of the challenges with housing and many of you work in markets where you personally feel that," said the Bentonville Schools Superintendent, Dr. Debbie Jones said.
The early stages of a long process began on Monday night— the district has been working with several community partners and entities to make workforce housing for teachers possible. One of the main partnerships is with the Excellerate Foundation.
Jones said "In the last couple of years, we know that staff wanting to move here have experienced extreme housing prices. The average house in Bentonville is $450,000."
"About a year ago the schools made offers to teachers, [but the] teachers would say, 'I won't be able ... to live in the school district where I'm going to teach,'" said CEO and President of the Excellerate Foundation, Jeff Webster.
And after the constant trend of candidates rescinding their offers... Bentonville superintendent Dr. Jones hopes this project can improve recruitment and retention.
Webster also said, "There are other policy things that will work with the school to make sure that we're what we're doing is beneficial to the school district."
"Through this year's hiring... I've personally approached it differently. If we're narrowing the search, my question before any job offer goes out is 'Have you looked at housing in this area? Do you realize what options are available?'" Webster recalled.
Through the workforce housing initiative, those who would qualify would be:
- Teachers
- First responders
- Nurses and medical staff
- Building trades
- Food plant workers
- Care providers- Elder/Child
- Bank and Office Staff
- Recent college Grads
With an average median income between $42,000-$83,000 for a family of four.
With this initiative, the developer says teachers would benefit in the long run by building equity through homeownership and building wealth.
The properties will be built on the land the school district already owns... with a total estimated cost of up to 25 million dollars.
Some school board members raised concerns about who will own the homes at the end of the day, but Webster says the district controls who lives there.
"We're planning about 100 units ... 20 [of those] are one bedroom and two bedroom [units that staff] can purchase ... So if they buy into one of these houses that are maybe $200,000, and it goes up in value, they receive that increase in equity."
As of now, the school board is waiting on the Arkansas Attorney General's opinions and then once they get that, they will plan out a timeline for this development. The school board also unanimously voted to approve the rezoning plan for the 2024-2025 school year, which will affect all grades below high school.
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