Chino Valley Unified School District prepares to open teacher housing
CHINO VALLEY — School district employees in Chino Valley are expected to begin moving into new district-provided housing as early as next week following Wednesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony at the property.
Constructed in under 6 months on district-owned land adjacent to the Del Rio Elementary School campus, the site includes 10 one-bedroom units equipped with a full kitchen and laundry room available for teachers to rent at $550 per month. This is considerably less than the area's average monthly rent of $1,975, according to rental data from Zillow.
"What these homes will do for us is keep our current teachers and allow us to compete in a tight labor market for the best teachers who might otherwise overlook Chino Valley schools because of a lack of affordable workforce housing," said school district Superintendent John Scholl.
Already nine out of the 10 units have been leased to staff members. The remaining new home will likely be used as a recruitment tool as administrators to try to fill open positions throughout the district.
Residents are not expected to stay in these homes forever, the district said. Instead, the homes offer newcomers an opportunity to get a foothold in the community and save some money while they look for something more permanent in the area.
"I'm hoping that this project can be an example that other school districts could follow," Scholl said.
Changes are also coming inside Chino Valley classrooms
In addition to the new housing, the district is also working to improve things within classrooms. After dealing with particularly punishing temperatures this summer, the district began a system-wide upgrade to the heating and air conditioning within its schools.
While the upgrade work is underway, temporary modular classrooms will be used to ensure classes can proceed without interruption.
The upgrades are expected to cost $24 million, funded in full by the state's School Facilities Oversight Board. The upgrades are expected to take 18 months and will begin at Del Rio Elementary School and Heritage Middle School followed by Territorial Early Childhood Center and Chino Valley High School.
"It's a health and safety issue really," Scholl said in a statement earlier this month. "During certain times of the year, our swamp coolers are not effective enough to cool the classroom so that it's appropriate for learning and teaching."
Arizona regulations require classrooms to be equipped with HVAC systems that can keep a room cooler than 82 degrees.
"When it's hot, when it's humid, and you add 30 bodies inside a 900 square foot room, it doesn't take much to get to that temperature," Scholl added.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chino Valley schools teacher housing is move-in ready