YUHSD is taking new approach to bring teachers to community
A local school district is taking new steps in the hopes of attracting new teachers to the community.
The Yuma Union High School District (YUHSD) announced a property exchange at last month’s governing board meeting, and Associate Superintendent Dianne Cordery offered further information in a statement to the Yuma Sun.
Through this move, YUHSD sold a 7.6-acre property at 221 E. 26th Place in Yuma and acquired a new piece of land in San Luis. However, Cordery outlined how YUHSD will still benefit from the property they exchanged.
“We have an agreement with the buyers – Von Verde, LLC – that the land would be used for housing. They’ll build however many units they’re going to build, and the district is then able to get 10 percent. We’re responsible for payment on 10 percent of those units, which we would then lease out to new staff coming to Yuma,” she shared.
“We wouldn’t be property managers or anything like that, but we could give them a lower rate,” Cordery continued. “We’re hoping to attract teachers to our area and keep them here. They’d only be able to stay there for a few years, and then we would encourage them to go out into the community and find housing that they can reside in long-term.”
After explaining that the opportunity is also a chance for new staff members to get to know one another, Cordery pointed out, “YUHSD gets 10 percent of the units, but if we don’t fulfill that 10 percent, we could go out to other school districts or entities like that and make sure that the units are being used.”
Cordery also noted how career and technical education (CTE) students will benefit from the arrangement.
“In addition to that, the agreement with the new owners would be that they would build a daycare center on that site that we would buy equipment for. So, if we have families that are moving to Yuma for teaching reasons, they have a daycare right there. And that would be run by our CTE childcare program,” she acknowledged. “We’re also trying to find a way to do something with a kitchen facility where we could maybe have a food truck that’s run by our CTE culinary kids.”
As for the timeline, Cordery said the plan is slated to come to fruition “within five years.”
Regarding the new property in San Luis, Cordery noted that it could be used for a “potential new school,” though nothing is set in stone, as the current YUHSD institutions are not at capacity.
“At this point, we don’t have enough students.