Aspen School District purchases three employee housing units

The Aspen School District Board of Education authorized the district to purchase three additional employee housing units for about $2 million, leaving $6.5 million in bond funds to spend on housing.

During the last school board meeting of the 2023-24 academic year, board members asked staff to pursue creative ways to acquire employee housing, especially as 2020 bond dollars ran out and the board declined to go after another bond measure on the November ballot.

Over the summer, the district identified eight studios available for the district to purchase for its employees, three of which the school board recommended the district purchase during a Wednesday work session. It was the first school board meeting of the 2024-25 academic year and followed board approval in June to purchase eight units of employee housing.

The district will purchase three studio units in Snowmass Village for $2.08 million. ASD Director of Operations and Facilities Joe Waneka also introduced five studio units available for purchase in Basalt for $3.24 million, but board members declined to purchase those units.

In June, the board authorized the purchase of one three-bedroom townhome and seven studio apartments in Basalt that are under construction at 128 Basalt Circle and are set to be completed in fall 2025. The five Basalt studios Waneka introduced on Wednesday are part of the same development.

If the district purchased those units, it would have left $3.24 million in bond funds to spend on housing. A 2020 voter-approved $114 million bond measure allowed the district to double its housing stock to over 100 employee housing units in three years. 

The board decided against purchasing more Basalt studios for several reasons, including the size of the units and the commute to Aspen. The studios in Basalt are 427 square feet. Studios and one-bedrooms are the most sought after among district staff, Human Resources Director Amy Littlejohn previously told the school board.

“As a draw to new staff, and as a mechanism for keeping staff, a unit that small may not be as powerful of a draw or a reason to stay,” said Board member Stacey Weiss. “So if somebody comes, gets one of those units, they go, ‘Well this is small, but you know, I’ll stay here for three years, and if I get tenure, maybe I can move up the chain and get a bigger unit.’

“But if they can’t, are they going to want to stick around for 400 square feet? Because I’ve lived in small spaces like that, too, and it’s tolerable, but it has its limits, and then you have a commute on top of that, and you’re not really a part of the community,” she added.

Board members also chose not to purchase the additional Basalt studios to keep housing available for the Roaring Fork School District.

“It’s being good stewards; they are a different school district down there, they need their own housing, as well; and if we can find things in our school district, then I think that is probably where we should look,” said Board President Christa Gieszl.