Schools, teachers in short supply

ST. GEORGE — The equation may be simple, but that doesn't make it more appealing: More students means hiring more teachers and building more schools.

And in a county where work-force housing is nearly nonexistent and land is going for premium prices, fears are growing among local educators.

Brent Bills, business administrator of the Washington County School District, which serves more than 23,000 students in 34 schools, said the district once enjoyed a competitive advantage when it came to hiring teachers.

"We had long lines of teachers to come down here," Bills said. "Now, as the cost of housing has gone way up, it's very difficult to find teachers to come down here.

"We had a person we tried to hire for an assistant principal position and offered them the job. They came down here and shopped for a house, realized they could not afford to live here and came back and said, 'Sorry, we can't do it.' They didn't realize how expensive it was here."

Justen and Laurel Selman, both agriculture teachers at Dixie High School, have had a similar experience. The Selmans moved to St. George in May 2005, at the height of last year's real estate boom.

"We were having a hard time finding anything under $160,000," Justen Selman said. "Then we found one house where the people couldn't sell it. There were seven colonies of termites. The house was about ready to fall down. One of the termite inspectors we got said, 'Run.' We had nowhere to go. We ended up buying a fifth-wheel camp trailer. The only way we can stay here is to stay living in a fifth-wheel."

Now the Selmans are considering moving to more remote areas of the county in order to afford a home.

Bills said the district hired roughly 200 teachers last year and must hire another 200 to 250 this year. But many teachers have turned down positions or asked to be excluded from consideration for a job once they have seen the area's housing costs.

"You talk about winners and losers in the housing market. We're out of the housing market," Justen Selman said. "In my future, housing doesn't even look like something that's there. We talked to some Realtors, and they said prices are going to come down, but I don't think it's ever going to get down to where I can afford."

With the county growing faster than projected, Bills said student growth has been above 6 percent in the past two years, with this year's growth at 7.4 percent. Those numbers are expected to slide downward next year, although not by much.

"We're starting to see a slowdown in the student numbers," Bills said, "so that's a positive thing."

Trying to manage the present while planning for the future is a monumental task, says district superintendent Max Rose.