Fairfield County School District Teacher Village hopes to answer teacher shortage issue

WINNSBORO, S.C. (WIS) - Phase one of a Fairfield County School District teacher village is expected to be completed in the next two months.

It is the first of its kind in the state where it offers affordable housing to teachers in the school district they work.

Last summer, WIS reported on the multi-million dollar project district leaders hoped would allow them to retain and recruit teachers in the school district.

Phase one consists of the construction of 17 homes. It includes a mixture of one story and two story homes.

Once completed, teachers will move in to their new home.

One of those teachers is Veronica Thomas who works at Fairfield Central High School as the Stem Coordinator.

She has been with the district for 8 years and travels nearly 200 miles round trip each day from Florence County.

“When coming to Fairfield County from Florence County, I realized that there were certain things or certain places that I enjoyed to stay in. But there weren’t many amenities, and things here in this area, that would allow me to be comfortable. And to just stay in things that I’m used to staying in. I ended up having to find something thirty minutes away from here which a thirty minute ride in Columbia could turn into an hour really easily,” said Thomas.

Fairfield County School District Superintendent Dr. J.R Green said currently the district has 13 teacher vacancies out of 520 total employees, but he expects to be fully staffed by next week.

With Fairfield County being a rural school district, Green said many of his teachers are driving long distances to teach.

He hopes this housing village will not only encourage those teachers to stay, but offer a way to recruit new teachers to the county.

“I think this housing initiative is going to be a model for school districts across the country. Not only rural school districts, as you know we’ve had people from all over the nation who’ve come down asking about this. There will be rural communities who can benefit from such an initiative and they’ll be urban and suburban communities who can benefit from such an initiative,” said Green.

Thomas said the project will allow her to continue to teach in the district.

“Just having the opportunity to really help those that look like me have a step up in life or ahead in life by getting college credits or getting career opportunities and internships that has been something that is a great passion of mine and so with the teacher housing project, that allows me to stay longer,” said Thomas

The project is being financed through the non-profit arm of the district, the Fairfield County School District Education Foundation. The total budget is $4.5 million.

Dr. Green says that USC is planning to rent one of the homes for their teaching students who intern for the district.

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