School board tables 20% proposed increase to employee rental housing rates after staff protest

The Eagle County School District staff encountered pushback over a proposal to raise rent on district-owned employee housing units by 20% during the school board meeting Wednesday.

The proposal sought to raise rents for one-to-three-bedroom units at Miller Flats by 19% to 20%. If it had been approved, the new rates would have gone into effect starting Sept. 1 for all new and renewed leases.

Instead, in a rare move, the board did not vote on the proposed increases — not a single member of the six present proposed a motion to approve or reject the new rates.

The housing rate increase action item was presented by Bryson Beaver, the district’s recently hired chief financial officer.

School district proposes 19% to 20% rental rate increases at Miller Flats to pay down mortgage equivalent

To construct Miller Flats, a 37-unit employee housing complex in Edwards that began welcoming residents in fall 2023, the district issued certificates of participation (COP), which Beaver described as similar to “a large mortgage.”

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“The expectation was that the rental income from our tenants would help cover those mortgage payments,” Beaver said, adding that there are “also a lot of expenses,” such as utilities, operating and maintenance.

The district’s plan was to raise the rental rates annually to ensure it kept up with its required payments. But last year, the district did not raise rental rates. A one-bedroom, which rented for $1,200 per month when the apartments’ first residents moved in, remained the same price.

“When the salary schedule didn’t increase one year, we thought, ‘well, we can squeak by for a year, because it will increase next year,'” said Sandy Farrell, the district’s outgoing chief operating officer. “When that didn’t happen again, there’s no way that we could make it through this year. There’s no way we can make it through next year.”

To make up for the deficit, the district’s housing committee proposed to the school board that the district raise rental rates on its employee housing units by 19% to 20% this year, which would equate to a monthly increase of between $200 and $300 per unit for most tenants. Under the proposed rate increases, a one-bedroom would cost $1,500 per month.

“Rental rate increases are needed to meet our COP payments going forward and to make sure that the fund stays solvent,” Beaver said.

If the district does not increase rental rates, the deficit — the amount of money that would need to come out of the general fund to cover housing costs — would be about $1 million at the end of next year, Beaver said.

“The hope would be that if we make these increases this year, that going forward, the increases would be more closely tied to inflation and not so steep,” Beaver said.

District staff speak out against the proposed rate increases

The increased district housing rates would still be lower than Eagle County’s workforce housing rates, coming out to about 85% to 90% of Eagle County’s workforce housing rates, though the school district includes utilities and the county does not.

Part of the housing committee’s rationale for the rate increases was that the higher rates would cost a district employee earning an average salary of $72,000 per year about 25% of their gross income, Beaver said.

But not all district staff living in Miller Flats earn at or above the district average salary.

Jackson Curtin, a teacher with five to seven years of experience and a Miller Flats resident, said he earns $55,537 per year. If the proposed rate increases were approved, he would be paying 32% of his gross salary in rent. (Currently, he spends 27% of his gross salary on rent, he said.)

“This is not, for five to seven years, the average salary of 25% that was listed for a one bedroom,” Curtin said. “I have some serious concerns.”

Curtin referenced the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s definition of “affordable housing” as housing for which the occupant is paying no more than 30% of their gross income for housing costs, including utilities. 

“We may not meet the affordable living piece of that, but we’ve always identified that we’ll make it as attainable as possible and try to make it affordable,” Farrell said.

Curtin cited the meeting agenda, which states that the new rental rates will put the district “on track to break even on COP payments and to exceed COP payments moving forward.” Curtin questioned why the district needed to exceed, rather than meet, future certificates of participation payments.

When the calculation was done to decide how much rental rates should increase, the housing committee considered setting the rates to total 30% of the income of the unit occupants.

But the variability in the type and financial status of unit occupants made it too complicated to use this model to construct an average rate increase.

Instead, the housing committee proposed an increase “that was just enough to make sure that we could keep this fund solvent,” Farrell said.

“With no agreed upon salary raise at this current moment and inflation of 2024 being at 2.9%, I’m effectively taking a pay cut and now having to pay more for housing,” Curtin said. 

Andrew Thumann, dean of students and athletic director at Homestake Peak and resident of Miller Flats, said 14 Homestake Peak School staff members live in district housing. “If even a few are forced to leave because they cannot afford to live here, the ripple effect at our school will be devastating,” he said.

“I understand that rent increases and adjustments for cost of living are a reality,” Thumann said. “However, the way that this process has transpired, the lack of empathy, understanding and transparency has troubled me deeply.”

Thumann said he was unaware that a housing advisory committee existed until recently and could not find a way to join the committee or submit input when he learned of its existence.

“As far as I know, no one on that committee even lives in Eagle County housing,” Thumann said. “When decisions are being made by people who are not directly impacted, who don’t live with the daily implications of those changes, it creates a disconnect that breeds frustration and mistrust.”

Thumann said that if the board were to approve the 20% increase, his rent would increase by nearly $3,000. “My salary is not increasing by $3,000 per year,” he said.

Both Curtin and Thumann asked the board to consider raising rents more gradually. 

While taking a more gradual approach to increasing rental rates is a possibility, “we could get there eventually but it’s probably not in the timeline that we need to be getting there,” Beaver said.

The school board sat in silence several times while asking questions of Beaver’s presentation, at one point for 20 seconds. Ultimately, not a single board member made a motion to vote on the issue, so the board moved on.

“Personally, I see the importance for it, I just think we’ve still got some questions and there might still be some options out there,” said Dan Reynolds, school board president.

The topic of rental rate increases will return at a later meeting, likely in June. “We definitely have to have a plan for (20)25-26,” Farrell said.