Ventura Unified School District has agreed to sell two long-idle campuses for a combined $47.3 million, but instead of just pocketing the cash, the district structured the deals so it keeps ownership of roughly 50 finished apartments it plans to rent out to its own teachers and staff. The two properties are the 24.9-acre Trudy Tuttle Arriaga Education Service Center at 255 West Stanley Avenue and the former Washington Elementary School site at 96 MacMillan Avenue, both marked as surplus after an advisory committee spent years reviewing which district-owned properties were no longer needed for classrooms.
Two Sites, Two Very Different Deals
At the Stanley Avenue site, an affiliate of MW Investment Group and HCD Investments LLC will pay $39 million for the education service center property, according to The Real Deal. That transaction requires the developer to build a mix of market-rate and affordable housing on the site, including studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments. Rather than taking the full purchase price in cash, VUSD will receive about $21.5 million upfront and retain direct ownership of roughly 50 of the finished units, which the outlet reports are valued at roughly $350,000 each.
Over at 96 MacMillan Avenue, homebuilder City Ventures will pay $8.3 million plus potential future payments to acquire the former Washington Elementary campus, per the same reporting. Those homes will be privately owned and subject to standard leasing and tenant-selection rules, unlike the district-retained units at Stanley Avenue, with the MacMillan site planned for affordable housing that gives priority to district employees. Together, the two sales total $47.3 million and are expected to secure approximately 50 homes for district workers.
Why VUSD Wanted Housing Units Instead of Just Cash
VUSD Superintendent Dr. Antonio Castro said in August 2026 that retaining direct ownership of the Stanley Avenue units lets the district set its own rent levels for what he called “middle-income” educators — staff who earn too much to qualify for traditional subsidized affordable housing but still cannot afford market-rate rents, according to a Ventura Unified School District announcement. That distinction matters locally: traditional affordable housing programs enforce strict low-income limits that often disqualify teachers, even as median home prices in Ventura County sit between $899,000 and $975,000 and average monthly rents run $2,700 to $2,900, per Esquire Property Management.
VUSD Board Trustee Sabrena Rodriguez framed the arrangement as a way to create workforce housing without raising local taxes or asking voters to approve a bond measure, the district said. District officials have also framed the sales more broadly as a way to address Ventura's affordable housing shortage without relying on a bond or government housing subsidies. The district was able to pursue this structure after the California State Board of Education granted VUSD a waiver from standard Education Code rules in November 2025, allowing it to negotiate through a competitive Request for Proposals process rather than a conventional public auction.
A Historic Campus and a Long-Vacant Site
The MacMillan Avenue property carries its own complications. The former Washington Elementary campus was added to the National Register of Historic Places in April 2025, which requires City Ventures to work historic preservation into its housing plans, according to The Cougar Press. The 5.35-acre site closed as a public school in 1982 amid declining enrollment and later spent more than two decades leased to the private Ventura County Christian School, which vacated in 2023 following a lease dispute, per the San Buenaventura Conservancy.
City Ventures was chosen out of seven competing proposals for the MacMillan site and has other local projects underway, including an approved 36-unit condominium development on Cachuma Avenue in Ventura, according to reporting from the Grant Leichtfuss Report. MW Investment Group, the primary developer at Stanley Avenue, specializes in urban infill projects across Southern California and has completed more than 1,100 residential units worth over $500 million since 2009, per a Facebook post from the same outlet.
Part of a Larger District Land Strategy
The Stanley and MacMillan deals are not isolated moves. VUSD also awarded developer negotiation rights in April 2026 for two additional surplus properties: the 10-acre Jewett Estate, tapped for Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation, and the 7.44-acre former Avenue Elementary site, tapped for Ventura Housing, according to the Ventura Breeze. The broader push reflects the district's effort to address rising operational costs and declining student enrollment by putting unused land to work.
James Forsythe said the process behind the sales was deliberate and public, and that the structure serves both the housing need and the district's long-term financial position, according to The Real Deal. Once the education service center changes hands, its employees will be relocated to other district-owned properties or nonoperating school sites — a move the outlet reports is scheduled at least a year away. California's Assembly Bill 2295, effective since January 2024, already permits school districts statewide to develop workforce housing by-right on land held by local educational agencies, a policy aimed at an estimated 75,000 acres of school land across the state, according to the ACSA Resource Hub.
Questions remain about how VUSD will handle tenant selection for its roughly 50 district-owned units at Stanley Avenue, the exact timetable for moving education service center staff, and whether community groups will raise objections over density or historic preservation once formal project entitlements reach municipal public hearings.
