Jon Johnson Photo/Gila Herald: Fort Thomas School Board members, from left, Cindy Pearson, Vernon Pancho, and Elliot Talgo Sr., join Miss Indian Fort Thomas Corey Cody, center, and Fort Thomas School Superintendent Shane Hawkins and Graham County School Superintendent Donna McGaughey, right, in ceremoniously breaking ground on the district’s new staff housing duplex. The district has already completed a quadplex for staff housing as well.
By Jon Johnson
“This is historic for us. We’re going to remember this for a long, long time.”
Fort Thomas Superintendent Shane Hawkins
FORT THOMAS – Imagine, if you will, a graduate with a teaching degree headed off to start their career. Housing could be difficult to locate and afford on a new teacher’s salary, but the Fort Thomas School District hopes to assist those highly qualified teachers and staff with subsidized housing in a quadplex and duplex located adjacent to school grounds in Fort Thomas.
On Monday, Fort Thomas School Superintendent Shane Hawkins welcomed dignitaries in attendance to ceremoniously “break ground” on the district’s new duplex project at 15567 W. Elementary School Rd. and tour the district’s completed quadplex. The duplex was already fully framed in the background having had the groundbreaking ceremony pushed back a month due to weather.
Superintendent Shane Hawkins was elated during the ceremony and said he believed the staff housing would bring great new employees.
“It is extremely difficult for our community, for our school system, to recruit and retain staff,” Hawkins said. “And this is just the first step in that. This is now going to be a tool in our principal’s hands to be able to go out for recruitment and retention of quality staff. We have really, really good staff when we get them here. But it’s really, really hard to get them here. So, hopefully, this is just one of those tools that we are able to use.”
Those in attendance included school board members, Graham County School Superintendent Donna McGaughey, who jokingly stated that if the program had been around when she was younger perhaps her father would have stayed teaching in Fort Thomas and she would’ve grown up there – and Graham County Supervisors, Chairman Paul David (District 1) and Vice-Chairman John Howard (District 2).
After a brief introduction, those in attendance were treated to the singing of our National Anthem, “The Star Spangled Banner”, performed in Apache by Miss Indian Fort Thomas Corey Cody. Following the performance, both McGaughey and Hawkins spoke about the importance of the program before the groundbreaking and open house.
“What a great day it is to come out here and see new housing for staff members,” McGauhey said. “You are already attracting wonderful teachers, now, hopefully, we can retain them.”
“This money doesn’t come easy or free; it takes all of your time and effort and you’re already busy with other things.”
The quadplex holds four apartments, while the duplex hosts two. Each apartment is the same; 900 square feet, with two bedrooms, and one bathroom with vinyl plank flooring, and comes with an open concept and a kitchen of electric appliances with granite countertops, including a refrigerator, and a washer/dryer stackset in a laundry closet. Each apartment will be available exclusively for Fort Thomas staff members and will cost $350 per month to rent, water and internet will be included and the units are on their septic system, meaning the only utilities not covered are electricity and natural gas for the water heater and central air conditioning/heat.
Additionally, the school district is building 10 storage units available for the staff at $25 per unit per month.
The cost of the housing project is about $800,000, according to Hawkins, and was made possible by two separate grants, including one from the Coconino and Yavapai counties that had submitted for grants for teacher housing and since they couldn’t use all of the funds allocated other counties reached out and, through the tireless work by the school district’s grant writer Darcey Barney, The Fort got the prize.
Superintendent Hawkins told the audience that the new teacher housing will enable Fort Thomas High School Principal Jayson Stanley to be the first principal in Arizona to use the staff housing as a recruitment tool and that Stanley would be at the University of Arizona on Tuesday looking for teachers interested in relocating to Fort Thomas.
“Baseball (is) one of my most favorite sports of all and there’s a saying in baseball that says if you build it they’ll come,” Hawkins told the crowd. “And if we build it, which we’re currently doing, they’ll come. And we’re going to recruit people from all over the country to come and work with the students in our school system.”
Both the quadplex and duplex are under construction by Hughes Custom Performance and one of the primaries on the project, Loren Goodman, formerly worked as a woods instructor at Fort Thomas.
After the groundbreaking, those in attendance were invited to tour the completed quadplex apartments just down the road and enjoy some cake.
Hawkins said the quadplex and duplex in Fort Thomas were just the start and that the district has plans to construct 15 teacher houses in Bylas in support of its Bylas Mount Turnbull Elementary campus there.
“This is just the beginning – the very beginning of a good thing,” Hawkins said. “We have a master plan for many houses in our Bylas Mount Turnbull Elementary campus.”
