WINNSBORO, S.C. — Friday was move-in day for new residents in Fairfield County's Teacher Village. The project aims to recruit and retain educators in this rural part of the Midlands.
Teachers moved into six homes, experiencing all the sights and sounds of a brand new space, moving in to begin the school year with a fresh start.
Thanks to $2.2 million from the V.C. Summer project settlement and other local donors, this teacher village is now a reality.
"Nobody's addressing rural parts of America and that's what we're trying to do with our model," said Sue Rex, chair of the Fairfield County School District Education Foundation.
Veronica Thomas has been with the school district for nine years and is already reaping the benefits of a shorter commute from her new home.
"Just having this housing project to be able to eliminate even just traffic in the morning, I've noticed already, my mood is much brighter," Thomas said.
Thomas said she's excited to live near and mentor fellow teachers.
"Just to have a place of veteran teachers also mixed and sprinkled throughout the community to speak with, I think will be very beneficial to the retention of that new teacher. We need ya'll," Thomas said.
These are teachers like Juan Alvarado and Kamilah Cook.
"I got contacted by my university, the college of education, and they told me about this opportunity," Alvarado said. "If I was willing to move out here to Fairfield County, that I would be one of the teachers living here, so I was thankful. I took advantage of the opportunity. And we're actually the only first-year teachers here because the majority, or actually all of them, are veteran teachers.
Thanks to the district's partnership with the University of South Carolina's College of Education, these first-year teachers only have to pay for utilities.
"It feels surreal. It feels like I'm living in a fairy tale. Not only am I working my dream career, which is being an educator, but being able to say that we are the first and so there comes stress with that, but you have to realize how blessed you are in the process," Cook said.
The district hopes that Alvarado and Cook's house eventually becomes a space for USC interns.
According to district leaders, three more homeowners will move in next week, and the technology center will be finished then.