Author: Eliza

School districts across the country are grappling with teacher shortages — and communities with unaffordable housing are often hit the hardest.

“There’s been times when we didn’t have a math teacher, or we didn’t have a language teacher,” Megan Carey, the principal of Terra Nova High School, located just south of San Francisco, told CBS News.

The reason? “High cost of living — 100%!” she said.

Now, her school district is trying something new: affordable housing on school property. It’s a 122-unit apartment complex that was approved by local voters and built for teachers and staff on property owned by the Jefferson Union High School District.

“It’s very spacious,” said Michaela Ott, who teaches biology at Jefferson High School, which is also in the district. “Extremely roomy!”

Ott said that an average two-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood would cost more than $3,000 per month. Her rent is $1,600.

“The suspension rate was high. MLK lamentably had the highest rate of disciplinary referrals in the entire district,” said Leslie Hu, MLK’s community school coordinator who added that standardized test scores were really low. The principal wanted to incorporate PBL, but knew students were distracted by a lack of basic needs that could not be met at home. Shifting to a community school model helped students with needs like food and medical care, and teachers like Founds were able to invest more time in developing their teaching practice.

Schools aren’t typically designed to offer more than instruction, but by addressing basic needsthey’re finding that students can learn better. Cincinnati Public School Learning Centers, Oakland Unified School District and even Lebron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, are community schools that lend a helpful framework for closing achievement gaps and improving student outcomes.

“The community school approach is where you