FAIR: School Board Back To The Well For $21 Million

October 22nd, 2008 at 07:19pm Post Staff 43

[Editor's Note: This news coverage has been underwritten by Factual Aspen Investigative Reporting (FAIR). FAIR has been formed and organized in Aspen, Colorado, as a nonprofit corporation to conduct investigative journalism in the public interest, and to provide accurate, meaningful, and non-biased news coverage based on correct factual information.]

ASPEN, COLORADO (Post Time News)—No stranger to asking voters to approve tens of millions of dollars of improvements, the Aspen School District is going back to voters again for the third time since 2001 to ask for the passage of a $12 million bond for affordable housing rental units that comes with an ultimate repayment price tag of $21.6 million.

In 2005 the Aspen School District convinced voters to pony up for $33 million to build a new Middle School; in 2001, the District asked for and received another $43 million for a new High School. In all through November 2008, the Aspen School District has asked voters for $88 million in funds on ballot questions since 2001. The repayment cost on the latest bond—on the ballot as Referendum 3 A—would be up to $1.147 million annually.

“We realize that we have asked the district for a lot of money in the past years,” Aspen School District Superintendent Dr. Diana Sirko told Post Time News. “But with this referendum we were very fiscally conservative. We were going to ask for more but in the end decided against it. I am pretty sure that we are not going to have to go back to the voters for money again any time soon. I am confident in that.”

“I don’t understand why they’re asking for twelve million dollars. I’d like to know how they came up with that number?” local television host Andrew Kole told Post Time News. “On the surface, I’m in favor of more housing for teachers. There is no question it is needed. I wish the administration would go into the specifics on how they are going to spend the money. After Burlingame, I think the public is going to demand a plan of action, and a budget before they vote YES for any project involving construction. I feel bad for the school district. They are potentially going to feel the wrath of the voters."

Sirko maintains the Aspen School District has lost 65 teachers over the last three years primarily because of the high cost of living. If approved, the new money from Referendum 3B for rental units would come with distinct advantages for school teachers and workers when they go hunting for affordable housing. These employees will also be eligible for other affordable housing via the general lottery, thereby guaranteeing two paths to the same goal.

“For the work they do they deserve to be able to get two shots at affordable housing…,” Dr. Sirko said, “I also understand nurses and firemen are in the same situation and if I could help them I would.”

Aside from the staff of the School District, Aspen City employees also get two distinct chances at affordable housing. Right now there are 45 employees living in affordable housing that is exclusively for those who work for the City. Aspen has some 300 employees who have the option of entering the standard affordable housing pool for Pitkin County.

“Right now we don’t have a set criteria on who gets the housing,” Assistant City Manager Randy Ready told Post Time News.

The School District is in the same boat as the City of Aspen because it has no set criteria establishing who will qualify for their affordable housing units. Dr. Sirko said the distribution of the units will not be based on the merit of the teachers and workers involved. She did say though that she would like to see new teachers living there so the School District could hold on to them.

“We will put together a committee to see who gets the affordable housing,” Sirko said. “It’s not going to be based on who the best teachers are.”

The teachers only get to rent the affordable housing units: once they retire or leave they cannot keep the units. The School District already has 22 units and with this plan would add 22 more for a total of 44. The school plans to spend $5.5 million in Woody Creek to upgrade existing units on property owned by the School District—and also add an additional six duplexes. The Aspen School District also plans to use the remaining $6.5 million to purchase ten to twelve units of affordable housing across the region for rental purposes.

There are already 25 members of the School District living in the affordable housing and the school hopes to accommodate more if Referendum 3A passes. The School District has 208 staff members, including 140 teachers. Currently Aspen has 2,800 units of affordable housing. To qualify for the units, workers in Pitkin County have to win a lottery—after living in Aspen for four years, working here for 1,500 hours per year, and not owning any other property in the Roaring Fork Valley.

“We really need this referendum to pass,” said Aspen School Board President Elizabeth Parker. “We are losing teachers and want to have the highest academic standards. This referendum is fiscally conservative and will not put a heavy burden on the tax payers.”

For a house assessed at $500,000, for example, homeowners will have to pay $8 more per year on their property taxes and for a $5 million home the homeowner will have to pay $57 more each year in property taxes over a 20-year period.

“We have lost a lot of teachers over the years,” Mayor Mick Ireland told Post Time News. “This will help keep some of the teachers we are losing. We need to educate our children. And, as I’m sure you’re finding out, housing in Aspen is not something that is easy to come by.”

Dr. Sirko said it is not easy to replace so many teachers when they leave.

“Teachers are valuable resources,” she told Post Time News. “We need to able to attract quality teachers to the District and a way to do this is to help them with housing since it is so expensive here. Educating children should be a number one priority and good teachers help. We have lost a lot of teachers due the high cost of living here and this will help solve that problem.”

Entry Filed under: Education, Aspen, Affordable Housing