Schools in Dixie seek $99 million

ST. GEORGE — Washington County schools are bursting at the seams, and teachers are squeezing even more students into dozens of portable classrooms set up throughout the district.

"The growth this year was over 6 percent; nearly 1,300 students," the school board states on its Web site under a link to school bond election information. "Without more buildings available, the Board has three alternatives to work with in order to accommodate the growth."

The favored alternative is to persuade voters to check the "yes" box on the school district's $99 million bond proposition published on Tuesday's ballot. The other alternatives involve adding more portables, giving teachers more students or moving to double sessions.

The bonds are necessary, supporters say, because that's the only way for the district to raise money to build new schools — and up to 20 schools will be needed over the next 10 years to house the expected number of new students, if population projections pan out.

The local chamber of commerce has voiced its support of the school bond, as has the Utah Taxpayers Association. The primary reason for this support from the "tax watchdog" group, according to association vice president Mike Jerman, is because the bond is touted as one that won't raise taxes.

"Obviously, Washington County is a fast-growing area," said Jerman during a recent meeting of the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce. "If projections are correct, taxes will not go up."

That's definitely a selling point for the district's business administrator, who fields questions about the education budget all the time.

"The overall assessed valuation in the county went up this year by 1.24 percent," said Brent Bills, adding the assessed valuation of property in the county increased last year by 9.1 percent. The bond debt payment assumes an eight percent growth in assessed valuation, a number the district believes is "conservative," he said.

Bills said that the county's growth not only produces more students to educate, it also creates a wider tax base from which the district can draw its funds.

In fact, he said, some of the projections were way off when it comes to where new students would be coming from.

"They (the district), projected growth in the Washington/Washington Fields area at 8 percent," said Bills. "The real numbers just blew that away."