Baker School District to change use for historic home
Apr. 5—A year after the Baker School District spent about $865,000 to buy and renovate two historic homes to house foreign exchange students, district officials announced that at least one of the homes will be used for a different purpose next school year.
The house at 1503 Second St., which the district bought for $490,000 in April 2022, will be offered as rental spaces for as many as five teachers or student-teachers, according to a press
release from the district on Monday, April 3.
District officials haven't decided how to use the other house, at 1706 Washington Ave. The district paid $295,000 for that house.
"We continue to find that housing is often elusive when we try to bring staff into the area," Superintendent Erin Lair said in the press release.
"We are still exploring the best use of the house on Washington Street, but the house on Second Street is set up well for transitional co-ed housing for up to five recruited teachers, including student-teachers, who don't identify another housing option right away. The school district would charge an affordable rent, and the support costs of renting to adults are much less than those required to house high school students."
Foreign students attending Baker High School through the district's Oregon International School this year have been living in both houses.
The Washington Avenue house started the year with seven female students, said Lindsey McDowell, public information and communications coordinator for the school district.
Five of those students are still living there, while two others have moved in with a host family.
The Second Street house started the year with six male students, of whom four still live there, the two others having returned to their home countries, McDowell said. According to the press release, having visiting students live with host families is preferred, "as it results in the most positive experience for both exchange students and local families.
"Given this preference and the level of support that is required to provide housing to students, the district looked closely at the best use for these houses in the coming school year."
Andrew Bryan, a school board member, said the change in how at least one of the homes is used reflects a broader change in the Oregon International School program.
He said the board no longer plans to try to expand the program statewide, as it has with other programs such as Baker Technical Institute and the Baker Web Academy.
Bryan attributed the board's decision in part to new leadership in the district, with Lair replacing the retired Mark Witty in July 2022.
Bryan said he expects the district will host fewer students next school year, perhaps eight to 12 compared with the 28 or so attending BHS this year.
Finding host families has been a challenge, he said.
And although Bryan said he understands that some district residents who opposed the board's decision to buy the two homes will consider the changing use of those homes as justifying their skepticism, he said he's confident that the district's financial situation will not change appreciably.
Although a smaller exchange program would generate less revenue for the district, and potentially change the projections that the International School will generate a profit for the district, Bryan pointed out that the district still owns the two homes.
They are assets the district could either use for another purpose — rental housing for teachers, in the case of the Second Street home — or potentially be sold, Bryan said.
"The houses are an investment," he said.
Last year, before the board bought the two homes, the district showed financial projections that the International School, which is a charter school, would bring in about $28,000 more than it spent the first year, with estimated surpluses increasing to $134,000 the second year and to $248,000 the third year.
The school district is looking for host families for exchange students in the 2023-24 school year. Anyone interested in being a host can email Tom Joseph, who oversees the Oregon International School, at thomas.joseph@
New
