Dennis Dearden, former Superintendent of the Sedona Oak Creek School District, said the school district now houses faculty and staff in eight one-room apartments on properties along Van Deren Road uptown. .

District patrons Basil Maher and Mimi Maher plan to help SOCSD renovate Building C of the former Big Park Community School in the village of Oak Creek into affordable condominiums for teachers. was standing.

These plans to support teacher housing were scrapped after Yavapai County No. 3 School District Superintendent Donna Michaels began pushing for school districts to lease school campuses to the county under lease-sale agreements. rice field.

Early wording in the county’s letter of intent mentions the possibility of converting the building into housing for county employees, but no final plans have been made.

The Mahers also had plans to convert a 14-unit property on uptown Jordan Road into teacher housing, but Yavapai County Schools Superintendent Tim Carter said after a tour of the property that repairs would be in order. said it was determined to be too costly.

Basil Maher previously said the Jordan Road building would cost $4.2 million to purchase, with repairs costing about $100,000. Instead, the Mahers plan to lease the Van Deren property to SOCSD while still in the couple’s possession.

The change of location to Van Deren came at the cost of the loss of a $500,000 matching grant from the state of Arizona.

“The problem was that there was nothing to match it,” Carter said. “[The Mahers] I had already paid the full price of the property. We had to say to them, “Sorry, I can’t give you $500,000.” I think they understood that. We obviously allowed all of this to the Arizona Department of Education, because the Arizona Department of Education is the financial agent for the grant, and the Arizona Department of Education agreed with it. “

One of the conditions of the $500,000 grant is that the school district must own the land to which the grant applies, and the conversion of the BPCS site to the county and the Jordan Road contract with the Mahas family. both were excluded.

“What happened during this time is that the Maher family has taken good care of all the teachers, purchased a number of properties, and continue to do so,” Dearden said. “They said to us, ‘The teachers are already responding, why don’t we slow down now and wait?’ Let’s see. [how] BPCS and Yavapai County purchase option status will be next year…this is a better deal for the county and a big thank you to Basil and Mimi Maher [for] We are working to really solve some of the teacher housing problems. “

Carter said the $500,000, along with $100,000 left over from Paige’s project and $250,000 from Sonita School District, which failed to finalize the purchase of the building, is being redistributed to fund other teacher housing projects. said it is.

Any of Arizona’s 13 local counties can apply for up to $500,000 of these funds in matching grants. The application deadline is Thursday, August 10th.