With the start of the school year just around the corner, staff members at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka are scrambling to find housing for new teachers.
The search has consumed much of the summer for Miranda Bacha, who took over as principal this summer. Housing was still needed last week for four incoming teachers — 15% of the teaching staff.
“This is how I’m spending all my time now,” Bacha said. “That’s basically all I’m focusing on, getting them housing. If we were four short, you’re talking 16 classes, 16 core classes. I’m talking math, science … a day that wouldn’t be covered. We can’t afford that.”
This year, as usual, the school hired new teachers in the spring, but when the search for housing wore on without results, some fresh hires accepted other offers. By May, Bacha knew she had a problem on her hands.
“We hired some teachers at the job fair in Anchorage in March and offered them positions and were accepted,” Bacha said. “And then they looked through March, April and May and couldn’t find anything, and then we got the call saying they were going to go to other districts because they couldn’t find housing.”
Bacha, who was a teacher before being named principal, said that as far as she knows this is the first time the school has ever had to search for teaching staff through the summer months.
“We advertised and did interviews all summer, which we’ve never had to do ever, ever in the past,” she said. “We’ve always been staffed by the time school closes (in May). So, all of a sudden, we’re doing that. For right now, we hired seven new teachers and four, right now, still don’t have housing.”
Earlier this month the school went to Facebook to ask Sitkans for help finding housing, but that has yet to solve the problem.
Bacha said that as of this past weekend she had 30 offers of housing.
“But out of the 30, 29 of them said no pets and two of the new teachers have a dog,” she said. “There was only one place that allowed a dog and it was a one bedroom for $2,000 (a month). A new teacher making a starting salary can’t afford that.”
At a starting teacher’s $44,000 salary, $2,000 a month would be more than half of their post-tax income.
“I had one (teacher) yesterday and I had the third one call and say, ‘I’m giving up.’ And so that’s why I’m trying super hard now and calling everybody I know,” the principal said.
“Some of the (local) people who have contacted me are like, ‘Well, we do a lot of short-term rentals. So, we’re not going to have anything until October,’” she said.
“People are saying, ‘Well, then you can rent this short-term.’ But then they want $180 a night and teachers can’t afford that,” Bacha said.
Suzzuk Huntington, who’s starting her first year as Mt. Edgecumbe superintendent, said the situation is critical.
“We, like many other districts in the state and even the nation, are starting short,” Huntington said. “If we end up starting short of the full capacity it will have a big impact on what we’re able to offer.”
The problems surrounding cost-effective and available housing aren’t unique to schools and teachers, Sitka Schools Superintendent Frank Hauser said.
“The reality is housing is a concern in Southeast Alaska. I think it’s just the reality that we’re living in. And that’s not only for the schools and everyone that works here.”
The Southeast Conference 2022 business climate survey identifies housing as the top economic priority in the region.
“Economic expansion in Southeast Alaska is currently limited by a lack of housing availability paired with prohibitive pricing, directly contributing to worker shortages,” the report said.
Reader Comments(0)