SHERIDAN — Sheridan County School District 2 is offering staff a solution to the Sheridan housing shortage by renting out properties on the old Normative Services Academy, Inc. campus to incoming teachers.
The district bought six housing units on the 227-acre NSI property, which is now owned by Community Impact LLC, earlier this year for a purchase price of $1,046,571 and is currently renting out those units to new faculty. Community Impact LLC, an entity of the Homer A. and Mildred S. Scott Foundation, also donated around $500,000 to the district’s purchase and renovation of the facilities. The foundation is in the process of rebranding the old NSI property and is now calling it “Bridges.”
Jenny Craft, executive director of the Scott Foundation, said some buildings on the property are being used as workforce housing for organizations like Sheridan Memorial Hospital, while others are used as short-term stays for traveling AmeriCorp teams with Habitat for Humanity and the Antelope Butte Foundation.
She said all habitable structures are currently occupied, and the foundation has plans to develop the property further by improving the gymnasium, bathroom facilities and outdoor space.
SCSD2 Business Manager Brandon Finney said the district worked with auditors to determine the fair market value of each unit’s rent rate. The four three-bedroom units cost $1,217 per month, the two-bedroom unit costs $963 per month and the one-bedroom unit costs $762 per month. The units were all recently updated, and utilities, internet, lawn care and snow removal are included in the monthly rates.
Three of the units are currently occupied, and Finney anticipates the rest being filled by August or September.
Finney said a majority of the staff members living in the district’s units are recent college graduates. He said the housing program gives new teachers a stable, affordable place to start their careers, which helps the district retain teaching staff.
“What was happening was, we were trying to attract these teachers, and people would accept the job offer. Then they would get here and go, ‘Whoa, I didn’t know the rent and the cost of living was so much.’ So they didn’t have a place to land,” Finney said. “Now, they’re able to have a place to live, and it’s clean and it’s nice.”
Finney noted the units are not meant to be a long term living situation — rather, the district’s intent is to give staff a year or two to get on their feet so they can then find their own place to live and allow other new faculty members to rent the properties. He said the current model is working out well, and SCSD2 likely won’t purchase more housing in the near future because it would be too expensive for the district.
Noelle Peterson, a native of Encampment and soon-to-be first grade teacher at Woodland Park Elementary School, will move into one of the district’s housing units before the start of the school year. Peterson is a recent graduate of the University of Wyoming and completed her student teaching requirements at Sagebrush Elementary School. She said finding a place to live in Sheridan that fit her budget was a major challenge, so being offered housing by SCSD2 took a significant amount of stress off her plate.
“Being a first-year teacher and having that comfort of not having a financial burden … is a really big blessing when we have all these other things we need to focus on,” Peterson said.
She also expressed excitement about building relationships with fellow teachers living in the housing complex.
“I think it’s a great way to make friends. It’ll be nice that they’re teachers so that we can talk about a lot and relate to each other,” Peterson said. “I think a really big thing when moving to a new place is making relationships and getting out of your comfort zone. So the fact that they’re all right there and really close is going to be really awesome.”
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