After two tumultuous years and a 200 mile commute to his family in Grantsville Wendover High School Principal Jason Saari is calling it quits.
“It is purely a personal decision,” Saari said Wednesday. “I have three teenagers at home and they need their dad more than just on weekends.”
Saari was appointed to the position in 2011 and instead of uprooting his family from their home he rented an apartment in Wendover.
Saari’s tenure in Wendover was far from peaceful. As principal he was the point man for the Tooele County School District new policy of not providing subsidized housing to the staff at WHS and sell off the units the district owns in the Utah/Nevada border town.
Facing a loss of pay and benefits that may add up into the thousands of dollars a year some Wendover, Utah High School teachers threatened some sort of work stoppage at the beginning of this school year.
The apartments are rented to teachers, Saari explained at a subsidized rate.
“A one bedroom apartment goes for something like $265 a month and a three bedroom goes for something like $350,” Saari said.
Built about 30 years ago the faculty apartments and their subsidized rents were along with isolation pay one of the major perks for Tooele teachers coming to Wendover. With current rents on the open market starting at around $450 for a one bedroom and $750 for a three bedroom the hit to WHS teachers could be at least $2,000 a year and possibly over $4,000 a year.
In addition to the loss of cheap housing WHS teacher could face a loss of hours as a federal grant runs out this year.
“The grant pays for an extra hour a day,” Saari said. “That adds up to quite a lot in a school year and it very well might not be renewed next year.”
While not unsympathetic to economic hit his teachers may take, Saari explained the Tooele District had no choice.
“All the apartment building need major renovations and maintenance that the district simply cannot no afford at this time.” He explained. “The school board made the decision that they were not in the housing business. Tooele County has still not recovered from the recession or from the closing of the army bases. Tax revenues are down and there has to be cost cutting.”
Saari was however instrumental in getting the district to double the amount of isolation pay to the WHS faculty and thanks to a very weak real estate market the apartment the district was so eager to unload still have not attracted a buyer.
“As long as there is no buyer the subsidized housing remains,” Saari added.
