The construction of workforce housing will be further explored by the San Mateo Union High School District after a recent survey showed a majority of local teachers are concerned about maintaining their ability to afford living locally.
As officials pursue a shuffle of facilities which they hope will give way to the highest and best use of district properties, Superintendent Kevin Skelly has proposed the Board of Trustees consider building an affordable housing development reserved for district staff on the former campus of Crestmoor High School in San Bruno.
The district Board of Trustees agreed during a meeting Thursday, Jan. 14, to gather more information about the potential to build a housing development which could be constructed at the current site of Peninsula Alternative High School, the district’s continuation campus.
The board also unanimously approved policies regulating the use of permanent lights which are expected to be installed at athletic fields throughout the district this fall. The issue had created some concern as some residents living near district campuses had opposed the initiative, due in part to fears their quality of life may suffer from a flood of light washing over their homes during night sporting events.
However, no one spoke in opposition Thursday night and the board spent much of its time on the housing issue. A survey responded to by 568 district teachers gauging the most important issues facing local educators revealed nearly 67 percent identified the ability to afford housing as a primary concern.
Only teacher salary outranked the interest of respondents to cost of living, according to the report.
The survey also showed housing cost would be the determining factor in whether teachers decided to stay working in the district.
Trustee Greg Land said he could support a teacher housing initiative as a means of attracting and retaining quality educators.
“It is getting harder and harder for us to recruit teachers and keep them,” he said. “That is critical, that we try to retain great teachers and bring new ones in, and I think we could do that.”
Though no formal decision was made during the meeting, the board unanimously gave the indication they would be willing to support hiring a consultant who could usher officials through the process of gathering more information about workforce housing.
The housing proposal is contingent on the ability of officials to negotiate an agreement with the San Mateo County Office of Education to lease or purchase property on Rollins Road in Burlingame, which could eventually serve as the home of Peninsula Alternative High School.
Officials have considered relocating the continuation program from the Crestmoor property, due to concerns regarding its placement in a remote region of the district which is far from the homes of many students.
The Rollins Road property is currently being leased to serve as the home of Design Tech High School, the district’s charter school known as d.tech, which is slated to move onto the campus of Oracle Corporation in Redwood Shores by 2017, pending city approval.
Once d.tech, formerly located on the campus of Mills High School, moves onto the campus of the tech titan, officials would be granted greater flexibility in management of district property.
Should officials ultimately express a desire to develop housing on the Crestmoor site, the board agreed it would be in the district’s best interest to attempt collaboration with other regional agencies on the project.
Trustee Marc Friedman suggested officials look to the county Office of Education or Board of Supervisors for leadership on the housing proposal.
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“We need partners on this,” he said.
The project was not universally supported though, as Trustee Peter Hanley said he is still uncertain developing housing is in the best interest of the district.
“I remain to be convinced about this housing initiative,” he said. “I can be convinced, but I’m not yet.”
He also questioned whether the Crestmoor campus would be the ideal location for a residential development, because it is so isolated from the rest of the district, which may not be appealing to young teachers who would traditionally apply for workforce housing.
“I’m not convinced that a 23-, 24- or 25-year-old would want to live in Crestmoor, even at a cut-rate rent,” he said. “That’s not where I would have chosen to live when I was 24 or 25.”
Trustee Linda Lees Dwyer said she generally supported gathering more information on the project, but expressed a desire to proceed prudently.
“We have to be exquisitely careful, and exquisitely cautious,” she said.
As the board considered future uses for a variety of district properties, it also moved ahead with policies regulating use of lights and public address systems at athletic fields.
The policies lay the groundwork for the installation of permanent field lights which have been proposed for all campuses, other than Burlingame High School, which is the only district site that has permanent lights.
Skelly said he expects the lights will be installed in the fall, and the issue will return to the board the following spring for an update on how effectively the new technology is being used.
Skelly though said district officials are committed to monitoring the initiative as it moves forward, to ensure the district is being a good neighbor.
“We are very excited about this project,” he said. “We understand there is some nervousness on the part of those who live directly around our schools, in terms of how this will affect their experiences and we hope there is virtually no impact.”
In other business, the board approved a policy which ensures students living in the Sequoia Union High School District will be able to enroll at d.tech.
The Oracle Corporation campus in Redwood Shores is located in the Sequoia Union High School District boundaries, and students living near the future home of the charter are expected to be interested in the school once it opens.
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