{"id":349980,"date":"2026-07-23T15:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/349980\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:39:10","slug":"hillsborough-school-board-considers-turning-former-mclane-middle-school-campus-into-workforce-housing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/349980\/","title":{"rendered":"Hillsborough school board considers turning former McLane Middle School campus into workforce housing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"School \"School School district considers workforce housing<\/a> <\/p>\n

Hundreds of Hillsborough County School District employees who are struggling to find housing may soon have a solution. District leaders are discussing plans to potentially build housing for school staff near a Brandon middle school. FOX 13’s Aaron Mesmer reports.<\/p>\n

BRANDON, Fla. – District leaders are considering turning part of the former McLane Middle School campus into workforce housing to help Brandon school employees find affordable homes.<\/p>\n

McLane Middle School housing plan <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

McLane Middle School closed in 2024, and district leaders want to explore a new use for the site. Deputy Superintendent Chris Farkas said the property could host a 150-unit housing complex by relocating unused portable classroom buildings.<\/p>\n

The community would serve district staff, including teachers, bus drivers and custodians. Hillsborough County<\/a> Public Schools would retain land ownership while leasing the site to a private or nonprofit developer.<\/p>\n

District employee housing details <\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

Officials have not yet presented a formal proposal to the school board, but board members expressed support during an initial discussion.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County housing costs <\/p>\n

Why you should care:<\/p>\n

Rising living costs are making it harder for school employees to live in the communities where they work. Board member Patti Rendon called workforce housing a critical need across Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

District officials said the project aims to help middle-income workers who earn too much for federal assistance but still struggle with housing. Florida ranks 50th nationwide in average teacher pay, according to the National Education Association.<\/p>\n

School board housing proposal <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Farkas said the development will feature traditional amenities, including a pool and a clubhouse, to match market-rate housing.<\/p>\n

“We want it to look like traditional market housing, and it will,” Farkas said.<\/p>\n

Rendon emphasized that the district will not act as a landlord or leasing agent, but will only lease the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are seeing the need to make sure that our educators, which is a priority within our community, to make sure we have young, educated people that are being able to thrive and can return to this community,” Rendon said.<\/p>\n

Brandon workforce housing pilot <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

District leaders could formally present the proposal to the school board later this year. If approved, the Brandon project will serve as a pilot program to determine whether similar workforce housing can be built elsewhere in Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n

The Source: The information in this story was gathered from a Hillsborough County School Board workshop discussion on Tuesday, as well as district official statements.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County<\/a>Housing<\/a>Education<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"School district considers workforce housing Hundreds of Hillsborough County School District employees who are struggling to find housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[113,47,629,1644,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-349980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-education","tag-fl","tag-hillsborough","tag-housing","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}