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To serve the needs of teachers, nurses, and other mission-critical workers, we work with a range of organizations to provide economical housing. Building an Upward Community can help your:
'Teachers can really stretch their dollars' | Hundreds of employee housing units approved by Hays CISD
January 29, 2025 / ABC KVUE
With school districts across Texas struggling to recruit teachers, Hays CISD's Chief Human Resources Officer Christina Courson is thinking about the "long game," knowing the district needs to keep pace with hiring staff.
The district's hope is now coming in the form of Upward Communities, a Central Texas-based developer.
On Monday night, the Hays CISD Board of Trustees approved a partnership with Upward Communities where they will build 300 rental homes in the first phase and will build a second phase if they have a waiting list. Roberts said Upward Communities will fund the project with the help of donations, which will bring down the rent and subsidize it even more.
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What's the Cost of Teacher Turnover?
According to Learning Policy Institute, high teacher turnover undermines student achievement, and replacing teachers consumes valuable staff time and resources. The research used to create the teacher turnover calculator indicates that larger districts can, on average, spend nearly $25,000 on replacing a departing teacher when school and district expenses related to separation, recruitment, hiring, and training are factored in. High turnover can have additional fiscal impacts, as the investments made for hiring do not pay their full dividend when teachers leave within a few years.
