Should Gibraltar Create Housing for New Hires?

Survey results lead principal to that idea

There wasn’t much on the agenda for the Gibraltar Area School board Monday – except for one of the biggest issues the district faces in attracting and retaining new teachers.

Under the principal’s report heading, high school principal James DeBroux said 40% – 25 of the 80 respondents – are unhappy with their living situation, whether they own or rent a home, and 60% of the new hires have difficulty finding a place that “fits their needs” in terms of cost and proximity to the school.

A lack of affordable housing is not a new issue in Door County – or in communities around the country – and the Gibraltar-employees survey further illustrates the concern. DeBroux last week was approached by Gibraltar fire chief Andy Bertges, who was eager to see the results of the survey. Bertges said few of his on-call volunteers can afford to live in Fish Creek and can’t find anything under $300,000 in the Town of Gibraltar. 

For their own employees and others, DeBroux said he wants “to shine a light on this,” noting that school districts don’t commonly “pursue workplace housing. But we are in a unique situation where maybe that might be a practical thing.”

Diving into the survey deeper than the summary page, DeBroux said the results also showed more than 80% of school employees who rent housing “are unhappy” with where they live.

“I don’t know how that compares with the general population, but it feels high, particularly with those new hires. The cost of housing was mentioned frequently,” DeBroux said, noting that some employees commute one hour to and from work. “Those most happy live within 10 miles of school. It’s not a huge group.”

DeBroux said many of the district’s employees would like to be active members of the community, but cannot because they don’t live close enough. He also made a case for renting housing stock to year-round employees rather than short-term visitors. 

“We are here year ’round,” DeBroux said of school employees. “We’re those renters you don’t have to chase, that you don’t have to clean for three times a week. We’re here 12 months of the year and care about the community.”

Gibraltar Involves Student Athletes in Interviews for Coaches

After Gibraltar Area School board members on Monday approved the hiring of a new varsity girls basketball head coach, a head softball coach and an eighth-grade boys basketball coach, superintendent Brett Stousland said he was pleased that some student-athletes were involved in interviews for the varsity positions.

Stousland said by email a day after the meeting that it was great to have students bring their unique perspective to the process.

“We are focusing on including student voice in many aspects of our school, including when we hire new staff and coaches,” Stousland said. “We are a district that serves students; we should provide them opportunities to have a voice in school decisions.

Stousland noted during the meeting that principal Jim DeBroux was not involved in interviews prior to the hiring of Evan DeBroux as head girls basketball coach. Evan had been serving as interim head coach since late last spring and worked as an assistant coach for two years.

The board approved the hiring of Brandon Schmidt as the new head softball coach. Schmidt has a wealth of coaching experience, including more than 10 years of experience in the Naperville, Illinois area in one of the top club softball and recruitment-exposure leagues, DeBroux said.

Board member Don Helm made a motion to hire Chuck Gress as the eighth-grade boys basketball coach, noting he knew of his skills not only as a coach but also as a math teacher in the Chicago suburbs.