Recognizing the toll created by housing challenges on the workforce, the Lompoc Unified School District is among five selected to explore creating a place for employees to live.
“When we think about the deepest rationale for this is that we want those best, best people in front of our students and we want them to be able to afford to live,” Superintendent Clara Finneran said Thursday. “In order to do that, this is something we’re considering.”
She spoke during an annual luncheon organized by the Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce with other presentations about the city, hospital and federal prisons in addition to the schools.
The Lompoc school district applied along with hundreds of others to become “a workforce housing cohort designee,” a partnership involving the California School Boards Association, the Chan/Zuckerberg Foundation, UCLA and UC Berkeley.
Five districts, including Lompoc, were picked after 27 interviews for the program focused on providing below-market housing to employees of schools.
The program aims to help school district officials learn to implement a workforce housing program, identify possible funding sources and more. As part of it, some Lompoc district leaders toured a 122-unit development in Daly City.
Finneran offered a couple of stark housing statistics for the reason supporting the exploration: Beginning teachers spend 34% of their salary on rent, while it can be 51% for classified employees.
“This is something we’re seriously looking at,” she said.
With 16 campuses, 1,100 employees and 9,000 students, the Lompoc district has targeted kindness and collaboration focused on readying graduates for colleges and careers, Finneran said.
She also reported that Lompoc’s schools have seen a 7% increase in attendance this year compared to last year. Schools across the state saw attendance decreases following the pandemic.
“We are really recovering from that actually quite well here,” she said.”We did it through a number of avenues, but largely it was our staff making school a whole heck of a lotta fun so that kids don’t want to miss it.”
Still, students shouldn’t come to school if they’re sick, but attendance remains a key component for student success, Finneran added.
“There is strong, strong correlation to attendance rates above 96% and students graduating from high school, heading to college,” she said. “There’s actually data that connects what they earn to their attendance rates in school so it is absolutely critical.”
In the post-pandemic world, academic metrics also have shown pockets of improvement, Finneran said, adding she expects to see the trend spread to other schools and grades in the coming years.
Finneran arrived in early January 2023 after turmoil in the district and as voters again rejected a bond measure aimed at fixing some of the $500 million in work needed at the district’s schools.
The school board likely will take action in June whether to again place a bond measure on the Nov. 5 ballot in hopes of getting voters’ approval.
“We have some significant challenges,” she added.
Water seeps into classrooms from roofs — “our roofs are terrible.” Windows need to be replaced, and aging modular buildings present problems.
“Better schools equals better property values, equals a much more beautiful and healthier community,” Finneran said.
Mayor Jenelle Osborne said investment in improving schools remains vital, noting companies looking to locate in Lompoc and military members debating assignments at Vandenberg Space Force Base assess the quality of education.
“The conditions of our schools are not only affecting students’ education, but they’re directly impacting the city’s desirability,” she added.
Specifics about the proposed bond measure will be decided ahead of a summer deadline to place the item on the fall ballot.
“We cannot do what we do to educate our children alone. Us working together is absolutely critical to the success of our children,” Finneran said.