A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
Affordable Housing for Bentonville’s Essential Workforce: First of it's Kind
In this episode, we explore a game-changing affordable housing initiative designed to support Bentonville’s essential workers, including teachers, hospitality staff, and service industry professionals through the new partnership between Bentonville ISD and the Excellerate Foundation.
Hear from the Superintendent of Bentonville Schools, Dr. Debbie Jones, and our CEO, Kalene Griffith, about the project and how it’s reshaping access to housing, strengthening the local workforce, and keeping the heart of the community right here at home.
Whether you're a local resident or just curious about innovative community development, this is a conversation you won't want to miss.
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Welcome to A New American Town. I'm Natalie with Visit Bentonville. Today, we're exploring a vital topic for our growing community affordable housing for educators. Educators Bentonville's rising popularity as a national destination has brought incredible opportunities, but also challenges, especially when it comes to keeping our teachers and essential workers living and thriving here. Joining me is Dr Debbie Jones, superintendent of Bentonville Schools, and our CEO, kayleen Griffith, to discuss Macaulay Place, a new affordable housing development designed specifically with educators in mind. We'll explore what this means for our schools, community and the visitor experience. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks, thanks, kayleen. So I want to kind of set the stage and get a little bit of background of what inspired Benville Schools to do this, because this is the first time anything like this is ever happening in America.
Speaker 2:It was kind of a surprising accident, and we went into this process thinking, oh my gosh, this could never happen. But it really started out of a need. Bentonville Schools hires about 100 teachers every summer. We're in the process right now of hiring 100 new teachers to come into Bentonville schools. Part of that is just because of the significant growth, which is good. But again, with growth we have challenges, and so about three now, maybe four years ago there was a summer where we offered contracts to people, and you have to know that we have. We've been very fortunate in the fact that we've been able to hire the cream of the crop. We would have lots of people.
Speaker 2:So I was shocked when three people in one summer accepted a contract and then looked for housing and came back and had to resign their contract because it was too expensive, they couldn't afford to live here, and so that really alerted me to the future problem that we were going to have. Yeah, yeah. And from there we went to Accelerate. Jeff Webster it's who we always went to Accelerate when we had a problem, whether it was with our staff who during COVID they experienced problems Maybe their husband was out of work, they couldn't pay their rent or couldn't pay some bills. I always went to accelerate because they have really it's a great nonprofit, well-developed systems very much supported in this area and said I don't know what we're going to do.
Speaker 2:What does the future look like when our teachers can't live in our town? And we have really good experiences of what that looks like. We experience it every year. This year we're losing one of our really amazing employees because his family lives in Fedville. They now have children, their children get into sports and they're never around and so they want to be closer to home, and that's one of the reasons it's really really important. Our staff, our teachers, our bus drivers everyone really builds roots in Bentonville.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so now, because of all of that, this partnership with Accelerate has become Macaulay Place, which is 180 different units, 120 of those are for multifamily right.
Speaker 2:Yes, and so you can picture it as two apartments. There are apartments in the middle and surrounding that. We have 42-bedroom multifamily cottages, family cottages, and those 40 are reserved for Bentonville Schools employees. And so we've seen the sketches. They're beautiful. The beautiful part about this story is it is the best possible outcome, because people in town work together on a problem, because this is a problem I could not have solved on my own. And when we started, my HR person and my CFO and I said could this really happen? No, this is never going to happen. This is a dream. And we walk. I remember walking out of that room and it's like the impossible dream came true. Jeff Webster and Accelerate kept working and they'd come back. What about this? And my CFO was saying we have zero dollars. We have zero dollars.
Speaker 2:But together we made it happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow. So, kayleen, I want to bring you in on the conversation. Bentonville is becoming such a well-known tourist destination and it's really important that our essential workers like teachers, but now also extending that hopefully into hospitality workers what message do you think this sends to tourists in our city?
Speaker 3:Well, I think for me it's more important to what message does it send to our residents and our workers in our community? And I think one of the things I'm super excited about is the innovation that has happened with Accelerate and the school. It can really tie to the hospitality industry. If we look at it and I'm looking at this as an opportunity for us to visually watch for the next year or two and see how this goes to say, how do we make this work for the hospitality industry? How do we support Because I do think it's important, I think you talk about it from teachers living in because they want to be integrated People that are going to work?
Speaker 3:They have families, they're working at a restaurant and their schedules are not an eight to five or an eight to four. They could be a variety of hours that they could work the early shift or the late shift. How do they make it work for their family? And I think this model is something that I think could be done in our industry very easily, and you're hearing some of these different kinds of models happening. I know that the Gulf Shores worked on a project and seeing how they could do temporary workers. My friend Beth did that and I think, listening and looking and hearing what they're doing and then seeing what Debbie and her team is doing, it really literally could be a game changer, not just for teachers, not for essential workers, but also for that hospitality industry. That really does need that support and that partnership which goes a long way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because all of those people are the heartbeat of our town. You could not have Bentonville without our educators, our frontline workers and our hospitality workers, and I love how much you care about that. It's really fabulous. So, debbie, sorry, pointing it back to the conversation on macaulay place and the significance of what's happening there um, so 40 of those units are reserved for educators. Um, is there an idea of what the rest of those places will be used for, because obviously my brain is going to hospitality workers?
Speaker 2:um, affordable housing, and so that will hit the service industry. And you know, I think many people have a misconception of affordable housing, attainable housing, and I read every word of the requirements. The criteria to get into the apartments is, I promise you, much more strict than people living in your neighborhood, as required by federal law, by the grants, and as far as background checks no offenses you can't have a sketchy history and be able to be accepted to live in the housing, and so it's going to be a really incredible community, not only because we have teachers and staff there, but what we want, whether it's in our schools, whether it's in our service industry, I want teachers to see this as their town. They have a vested interest in seeing every single student in their classroom be successful, to come back to this town and be productive citizens, and so if you approach your job that way, I want every single Bentonville school staff to love this town as much as I do. We talked about we're never moving from here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:This is a dream. I honestly wake up every day and think how fortunate are we. I just returned, we just threw out a little field trip and took K through third graders on a bus to Crystal Bridges to see Al Roker, who gets to do that, and then you walk downstairs and they give you free pizza. Not everyone has the incredible opportunity that we have and we want to preserve that for the future. We want to grow opportunities for families. We want to create super productive, smart graduates that come back to this town and support us when we're really old and we're tired of working. I mean, if we throw that kind of passion into our work, then we will make things like this succeed. It wasn't an easy road. It was a political battle. It was worth the battle and I know as soon as we start announcing some information about application which is going to be by the end of this summer very soon it's going very well. I know we're going to have so many staff interested in applying for this.
Speaker 2:The housing you know this is a really unique national model. Kayleen, you talked about it and this is one of the things that makes this housing model unique. Kayleen, you talked about it and this is one of the things that makes this housing model unique. In Macaulay Place my staff can choose to buy into a shared equity about $1,500 a month which they'll pay that for rent anyway if they're lucky enough to get an apartment here or they can choose to pay cheaper rent, which is about half that. If they buy into the shared equity model, they can walk away after five years which is how long they can live in Macaulay Place and get about a $50,000 check to invest on their new home. And that's only because Accelerate Foundation owns those cottages, and so it's a brilliant financial model to give teachers and staff a chance to invest in this community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when I first heard about that, I was just blown away Me too. That will change so many people's lives.
Speaker 2:We've had lots of interest. When we ran the numbers and this is a year ago we had 1,000 employees in our district that would qualify, so I expect I'm watching it closely too. I can't wait to see the application period.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow. Kayleen, how do you think that this housing stability for teachers will be able to support the larger ecosystem for Bentonville?
Speaker 3:I think one of the things that Debbie said was the teachers want to be in our community. They want to invest in the community. They want to be around where the kids are living in our community. They want to invest in the community. They want to be around where the kids are living and they're going to be supporting all of our businesses, from our restaurants to our retail, on a regular basis. If they're living here, if they're living somewhere else, they're probably going to do that on their way home, closer to their house. If they're here in our community, they're going to be impacting our ecosystem in the community.
Speaker 3:I think that's one of the things that I see as a huge value is that the dollars that they're investing in are coming back into our community and that's always a circle effect for us.
Speaker 3:But I think it's also how do they engage with their students? If they're not in the same area that their students are, it's hard to engage in a daily basis with them. So I think those are things that are important, and you and my kids are 25 and 27. And I just know that when my kids were younger, when they saw their teacher, how important that was to have that conversation and having that relationship that they had and you knew we saw them in Walmart, we saw them in the retail shop, we saw them in a restaurant. So they were spending their dollars back in our community and I think that's key to what is important, because then there's a value and I think you said it is that they want to be part of that community. They see a value in that and I think that's important for us as we support our businesses in our community. We see that value from everyday people in our community, not just teachers but everybody. But I think having that housing here will change that for our community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and people always say it's a small town with big city amenities. Yes, this is just one of those initiatives that's going to keep that same. You know, walking down the street you can see your teacher. That, you know, makes it stay like a small town and that'll be really special because the love for Bentonville really stems in the classroom from the teachers and that's just so cool. So do you think that this housing model could be adapted for other sectors in our town in the next coming years, or what is the bigger goal here?
Speaker 2:I think that we really have to be innovative in our approaches for building. We can't build traditional schools the way we've always built them, and so that's why you see in many cases as contractors or businesses put up office buildings they include housing, they include retail. We can think about that as a school district as well, when we look at probably what will be our third high school, which will be our next building. Likely it will be a professional studies building. I would love to see businesses plugged into that, higher ed or junior college plugged into that. We have to be efficient about land use and we have to think Just think outside the box. I think everyone will benefit.
Speaker 2:This community is driven to have a great quality of life. That's one thing that we think about with all construction, not just your business, your purpose, but how does this affect the neighborhood around me and how can it serve the community around me? So as we build and we're talking about our future building we're talking a lot more about hey, how can the community use this? Why would we build a building that couldn't be used 24-7 in the summertime as well? That's super inefficient.
Speaker 3:That's a huge asset for us because we see those partnerships with the school, with some of our sporting events. Now we could see that with the business world, and I think that's a huge asset for us. And I think one of the things that I value what Debbie is leading on is that the innovation is at its highest level of we don't say no to things. We say yes, we look to see where can we go with those and I think it's solving for that, yes, but also looking at other things that are going on around, not just here, but everywhere, and saying, okay, what's working, what's not working, how can we do it better, or how can we do it differently that works for our community. And I think we talk a lot about that.
Speaker 3:And I think when we're talking about these ideas, debbie doesn't keep them to herself. She brings them to the community leaders and we talk about the ideas and the direction we're going in. How can we all work together to support what Debbie's doing? And I think when you talk about it a lot of times, somebody will say why are you working with the superintendent and the tourism director? Well, the things she's doing are going to impact our industry.
Speaker 3:So if we're not working together, we're not doing our job, and I think that's important as we look at the opportunities, the quality of life initiatives, the facilities that you're building, and us being part of that conversation and saying, okay, what are our needs in the tourism industry? How are they building something that we could maybe use in the future? And I think those are innovations that are not happening other cities and I think that's a huge value for us. So to me, I give kudos to Debbie and her leadership team, but our community really does do a good job of working together with that innovation and also, it doesn't matter whose idea it is or what works. It's the idea that it works for our community and that's important for people to understand.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel like tourism here has always been really pushed by how the residential quality of life has been the bedrock of why our tourism is so successful, and so the fact that it's kept that intentionality and it's just going to keep our residents are going to be continuously at the forefront of all of the quality of life initiatives, it's just really, really exciting and transformative.
Speaker 3:And I think that's a talent recruitment opportunity for our businesses when they're recruiting.
Speaker 3:It's that quality of life initiative that you talk about, that business recruitment when we're doing that, and the schools that you're looking at, that talent recruitment. How do we keep people in our community? And I think that's the important thing, that we don't want somebody to be hired and not be able to find a house. I mean from the educational side to fire chief or to the fire and police department. We want all of those folks to be part of our community and so, being innovative, like Debbie's team has done with Accelerate, it will be a game changer for our community. But I also think it's going to be a national model that people can adopt and really run with it and make it work for their community.
Speaker 2:Right. I've thought a lot about how important it is for us to work together because we have to produce the best product students, successful, driven. I want every industry in this town to say I hired them, they're Bentonville High or Bentonville West graduate and they are so successful. I can't do that unless I can hire the best. I can't do that unless I can hire the best. And as people move in town, industry needs to say we have excellent schools and they're able to do that, but we have to be able to produce all of this together. For example, for me to produce the highest quality career ready student, I need businesses to say, hey, I need an intern, these are the skills. I can come talk to the class or I can take some interns on in my own business and we have students at both of our high schools and IGNITE that need those experiences. We have the pathway for any business that's out there and so as we succeed, you succeed and it really is. It takes all of us participating to create this lifestyle. We want to continue in Bentonville.
Speaker 1:What would you say to a teacher that's maybe looking to move into the area and heard about this initiative? May be looking to move into the area and heard about this initiative.
Speaker 2:I would say watch closely and don't sign a long-term lease right now, because we'll be announcing some information, hopefully by the end of the summer, and the opportunity will be there to apply for, of course, it's 40 cottages. That's going to go quickly, but they can also apply for the other apartment housing in the middle. Yeah, fabulous.
Speaker 1:Do you guys have a set time for when those will be done?
Speaker 2:Well, it's a building schedule that gets pushed back a lot.
Speaker 1:You don't ever know. I can't give a hard timeline, and be honest Makes sense. Do you have anything to add, kayleen?
Speaker 3:I think I'm just excited and thankful for the vision of the Accelerate and Debbie and her team. I think that this doesn't happen with people that are not innovative and forward thinking, and so we're very, very fortunate to have them part of our community, but also part of our thought leadership in our community. Yeah, we are very thankful.
Speaker 2:You know we raised the bar together. Think about as Kayleen does something. It's tough to work in this town because you have to be innovative, you have to keep up and if you don't, then you're falling behind, and so we drive each other and we have excellent people. I find that leaders and teachers, they want to be a part of the best and that does a lot of recruitment on its own.
Speaker 1:And students too. Students perform so much better when they're a part of the best. Absolutely yes.
Speaker 3:I agree.
Speaker 2:And the opportunity they're getting is just really incredible, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, thank you both for joining us. It was fabulous having you on in this conversation. Don't forget that Visit Bentonville is here to help you navigate things to do, where to eat and stay and what's going on in our new American town. Check out the show notes to follow us on social media, subscribe to our newsletter and check out our website at visitbentonvillecom. Thanks for listening.