Mountain View Whisman approves sale of 50 staff apartments to Foothill-De Anza

The Mountain View Whisman School District approved selling 50 units in its 144-unit teacher housing project to the Foothill-De Anza Community College District in a unanimous vote on Monday, Aug. 25.

The decision to sell off roughly a third of the project reduces the number of units for the school district to fill. Finding enough tenants has proved to be a challenge, with only 53 apartments currently rented, Superintendent Jeff Baier said on Monday, adding that selling the units will put the district in a much better position.

“The way it was set up really created a risky situation and … potentially compromised our general fund,” Baier said. 

Foothill-De Anza’s board plans to vote on whether to approve the sale at a Sept. 8 meeting, according to community college district spokesperson Ellen Kamei, who also serves as Mountain View’s mayor.

Foothill-De Anza will pay $54.45 million to acquire the apartments, which offsets the $53.5 million cost to purchase the land beneath the housing project that the board approved last month.

Until that point, the district owned the building but not the property itself, putting it on the hook for annual ground lease payments of roughly $1.9 million. That amount would have increased 2-4% each year, based on inflation.

Buying the land eliminated the ground lease costs, but the revenues and expenditures were still out of balance due to empty units. 

The sale will drop the number of units available for Mountain View Whisman employees from 123 to 73. Another 20 units will remain reserved for city of Mountain View employees, with one unit set aside for a property manager.

Selling the units will free up other district funds that had previously been earmarked for buying the land, according to Baier. Back in March, the school board voted to set aside $29 million in existing district funds.

The sale will also remove the need for the district to take on debt to finance the land purchase. The district had been planning to use a financing tool available to schools known as certificates of participation.

The rental rates are driven by the district’s costs to operate the project, so relieving the $53.5 million land purchase will help lower rents for school district staff, Baier said, adding that it will hopefully allow more employees to move into the building.

The topic of teacher housing has been a controversial one in the community, with some raising concerns about the district’s financial management of the project. Board President Bill Lambert assured meeting attendees on Monday that the proposal was well-vetted by the board.

“We have had the advice and been able to ask questions from multiple different attorneys from multiple different law firms, and so all of the board members have had an extensive opportunity to review the document, comment on it and ask questions about it,” Lambert said.

Trustee Devon Conley commented that the board is “very grateful” for the partnership with Foothill-De Anza, as many Mountain View Whisman students, when they get older, take classes at those colleges.

“We believe that this will be in service not just of our students today, whose teachers and staff members can live closer and be able to grow roots here and grow in our community, but also for these students in the future as they age up,” she said. 

City of Mountain View partners with school district on $3.6M fix for crumbling creek banksDecember 24, 2025 12:12 pm

Find out what’s open and closed during the holidays in Mountain ViewDecember 23, 2025 1:30 pm

Mountain View Whisman considers laying off at least 15% of district office staffDecember 23, 2025 12:44 pm