In a county as sprawling and massive as Nye County, commuting to work is often less of an option and more of a necessity.

This was just one reason the school board voted not to instate a residency requirement for its employees at its Thursday, May 8 meeting.

"To me what's more important is if the job is getting done," Superintendent Rob Roberts said. "If a teacher lives in Pahrump and works in Amargosa and they get to work every day, that's ok with me."

Roberts also pointed out the lack of housing and public transportation in many areas throughout the county, adding that some people had medical dependencies that factored into where they chose to live.

"I think we need to manage this as a per-person, per-job situation," the superintendent added.

"We also have teachers and staff that commute from Clark County to Nye County," School Board President Dennis Keating pointed out. "And we appreciate them doing that. It's not easy to put in a 10-plus hour day and still do an excellent job for the students and the district."

In addition, Keating said, the current housing crisis in the state made the already challenging task of recruiting teachers more difficult, so "we need to do whatever we can to make it easy on them so they want to come to Nye County."

John Kiley, president of the Nye County Teachers' Association, addressed the issue prior to the board's discussion during public comment.

"If it involves teachers, I would urge the board to take into consideration that many of the schools have teachers who commute from other locations in order to work at them," Kiley said.

He then listed a long string of commuter paths many teachers take to get to work: from Pahrump to Beatty, Beatty to Amargosa and Tonopah to Round Mountain, just to name a few.

"Those people who are in these rural areas, I think we want to make sure we're not driving people out," he added. "Some of those areas, it's very difficult to find housing, it involves getting land from the mine and all that business. So I would urge you not to make this resolute."