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

"We will be building schools at a pace to keep up with the growth," Rose said, noting the district has been surprised in the past on where the county's growth occurred.

"The growth is occurring in an uneven pattern," he said. "On the west part of the district the growth rate is about 3 percent. In the Washington and Hurricane area the rate is about 7 percent. By 2014, we'll have a school population of 40,000 students."

If growth continues as expected, Rose said the district will open a new high school in 2008 and another in 2014. Twelve additional elementary schools, two middle schools and three intermediate schools also are lined up in the district's future construction plans.

"This will bring the number of schools in the district to about 50 schools within the next 10 years," Rose said, pointing out the plans are contingent on whether student enrollment projections pan out.

Paying for those new buildings will take another $150 million in general obligation bonds, according to the district, which will ask voters to approve the bonds on June 27.

By January 2008, Bills said, the district will run out of construction funds. A $99 million bond approved just two years ago is already obligated for new construction, repairs and additions to existing schools.

Voters also will be asked to approve an increase in the district's portion of the property tax levy. For the average homeowner with a $200,000 house, the tax levy increase will add about $55 to the annual property tax bill. Those funds will be used to place two days back on teacher salary schedules, add reading intervention programs in all the schools and continue developing professional learning communities within the district.

Even with the additional money, the county's cost of living will make it difficult to attract quality teachers to staff schools, said Lyle Cox, the district's human resource director. Cox said he is beginning to think it will take "desperate means to hire good teachers."

"I think there'll be public interest in this problem when we have three to four teacher jobs open in our schools and we're doubling up classrooms," Cox said.

Cynthia Birch is concerned not only with the quality of the district's school programs and its proposed tax increase but also with the way that money is being spent at her neighborhood school.

Dixie Downs Elementary is slated to become the district's first dual immersion school, with kindergartners and first-graders learning their lessons in Spanish and English. Birch, who has a preschool-age son, is infuriated with the school board for voting to approve the program.