Sedona Red Rock News
Affordable housing has long been an albatross for the city of Sedona.
While officials use the term “affordable,” and there is a federally defined term “low income housing,” what city officials and most residents really mean is “workforce” housing.
Sedona City Councils in the 1990s discussed workforce housing problems before I moved here. For the past 20 years, affordable housing has been a “priority” and yet, virtually nothing gets accomplished in terms of actual workforce housing.
Sedona has seen one multifamily complex in the last decade, but its rents are arguably not really that affordable for most workers. Other developments face backlash long before specific details are even announced, such as the 52-unit complex proposed off Andante Drive in 2019.
Sedona Red Rock News
Superintendent Dennis Dearden, right, and Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing Board president Randy Hawley appear at a February board meeting. Photo by David Jolkovski/Larson Newspapers
The bank account of the Sedona-Oak Creek School District will soon see an increase of a little more than a half-million dollars.
Thanks to the federal stimulus Elementary Secondary School Relief Fund, the district will be receiving $506,704 in federal funding. Superintendent Dennis Dearden announced it during the Governing Board meeting Tuesday, March 2.
The parameters of how the money can be used are pretty broad, as long as it’s somehow COVID-19 related, he said. The plan now is to refurbish more than 100 Chromebooks as well as purchasing additional ones. They will also be looking at improving audio enhancements for the classrooms.
Sedona Red Rock News
Sedona Red Rock High sophomore Hunter White gets
sworn in by Sedona-Oak Creek School District Governing
Board President Randy Hawley on Tuesday, March 2. White became the district’s first student representative and will attend every board meeting while serving as a voice for the student body. Photo by David Jolkovski/Larson Newspapers
The Sedona-Oak Creek School District’s governing board has a new face on the dais one that comes as little surprise to most.
During the Tuesday, March 2, board meeting, Superintendent Dennis Dearden announced that sophomore Hunter White will serve as the district’s first-ever student representative, effective that night.
Sedona Red Rock News
For more than a decade, enrollment within the Sedona-Oak Creek School District has been on the decline.
While some of that is out of its hands, the district is not throwing in the towel and accepting defeat.
With an unexpected decline in students this year and an anticipated loss of 45 students next year, the district and its Governing Board are looking at ways to not only attract new students but maintain the ones they have.
While the district is aware of the potential number of students they are expected to lose usually as a result of smaller kindergarten classes each year they are now in the process of recruiting new students. One way is via a video the district is in the processes of producing that’s expected to be out this spring.
Sedona Red Rock News
Well, it’s official Sedona will soon be home to a middle school.
By a unanimous vote on Tuesday, Feb. 2, the Sedona-Oak Creek School District’s Governing Board directed staff to move forward with adding sixth grade to the Sedona Red Rock High School campus in the fall. The district’s seventh- and eighth-graders have been at the high school since the 2016-17 school year.
Superintendent Dennis Dearden said this will benefit the school because it allows more flexibility with courses being offered and for the students it gives them three full years to participate in activities such as orchestra and theater as well as athletics.