The local school district could become a housing developer in the near future as school board trustees gave them the okay to invest $12,350 in pursuing allotments through the city’s Residential Development Control System.
“We are in the exploration phase of the process and we are seeking direction from the board,” said Assistant Superintendent of Business Services Kirsten Perez in her opening remarks to the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s board of education.
With a statewide teacher shortage making for a highly competitive market, MHUSD is not the only school district exploring housing options that could help in its Local Control Funding Formula’s goal of attracting and retaining high quality teachers.
Perez mentioned Santa Clara Unified and San Mateo as two Bay Area school districts that have opted to provide some sort of employee housing to help alleviate the rising rental and home prices in Silicon Valley for their workers.
The housing element is not just for teachers, as Superintendent Steve Betando pointed out at the Nov. 15 meeting, as it also stands to benefit the district’s classified employees as well.
While still in the early planning and brainstorming phase, district officials needed board approval to begin moving forward with all the particulars since the next deadline for the city of Morgan Hill’s RDCS application process is Sept. 1, 2017. Those who apply by this deadline will compete for housing allotments that can begin construction by July 1, 2019.
Perez explained that staff has not yet determined overall budget estimates, what type of residential housing they will provide such as an apartment complex or townhomes, and where it will be located within the city limits.
District officials have shown interest in purchasing the Valley Transportation Authority park-and-ride lot on Main and Hale avenue, according to a VTA staff report from August. However, MHUSD staff would not say if that was a possible site for employee housing since discussions have been conducted in closed session.
“What I can tell you is that the development of employee housing options is a new area of business for consideration and we are not closed to any options including potential location for such housing,” Betando said.
The VTA board of directors declared the Hale Avenue parking lot, which sits adjacent to a commuter bus stop, surplus property and began negotiations to sell the property to an undetermined buyer in September. The property is also next to MHUSD’s Britton Middle School, for which the trustees approved a $50 million campus upgrade plan earlier this month.
“We don’t have all those answers today,” said Perez, who has met with city staff to size up the district’s options as far as providing some sort of affordable housing to its employees.
The board voted 5-1 to approve the $12,350 contract from its one-time discretionary funds with Development Process Consultants to assist with the district’s RDCS application to the city. They are looking to secure allotments for the year 2019 to build future district employee housing. Staff will also be meeting with architectural firms and requesting proposals as part of the application process and will bring it forward for approval, according to the staff report.
Outgoing trustee Rick Badillo cast the lone opposing vote.
“We’re in public education and I think we should focus on public education,” said Badillo, who mentioned there are plenty of affordable housing options in Morgan Hill already offered. “I personally would not like to go down this road.”
However, five of his colleagues on the board wanted to hear more about how the district could offer such housing opportunities to its employees as an added benefit to stick around instead of bolting for higher paying jobs at other area school districts.
The local teachers union, called the Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers, is currently in contract negotiations with district officials. Its members are seeking a 10 percent pay raise. But no new agreement has been reached and teachers have been vocal about their frustrations at recent board meetings. They are not alone as the Service Employees International Union, which represents the classified workers, has also publicly griped about wanting higher wages.
Trustee Donna Ruebusch said she was familiar with the complex RDCS process and believed the district would be wise to make the “small investment to have somebody guide us through the process.”
“I think it’s worth pursuing,” said Ruebusch, who voted in favor of the housing consulting contract along with board trustees Bob Benevento, Ron Woolf, Gino Borgioli and David Gerard. “There’s a strong desire by many of our employees to look at this as an option.”
Trustee Tom Arnett was absent from the Nov. 15 meeting. The next regularly scheduled board meeting is Dec. 13 at which time Arnett and two new members, Mary Patterson and Teresa Murillo, will be sworn in as school trustees.
