Combating Ski Town’s Housing Crisis: Big Sky School District Opens New Affordable Housing for Teachers

The Big Sky School District celebrated the opening of six new affordable homes for teachers and support staff on September 16, giving school employees another housing option in one of Montana’s most expensive resort communities. Construction of six single-unit “tiny homes” was completed in September, just in time for the 2026-27 school year to start. The houses are part of “phase two” of houses on the school’s campus that are offered at below-market rental rates. The units are available on a first-come, first-served basis, and all are now occupied. The board has set a minimum rent of $750 and a maximum of $1,200 per unit.

The school district received $375,000 from the Yellowstone Club Community Foundation and $375,000 from the Big Sky Resort Area District for the construction of the houses. “I’ve taught up in the Flathead Valley and in Bozeman and was priced out of both,” Jared Kelly, a Big Sky School District teacher, said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and lives in one of the units. “This housing has given me an opportunity to stay in Montana and teach these kids. I love this community. I’ve really enjoyed being close to the school and being in the mountains. Having two extra hours of sleep and not driving the canyon makes me a little more fresh to go teach those middle schoolers.”

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It’s tough for teachers who want to work and live in the school district to find affordable housing in ski resort towns in Montana like Big Sky. A lot of recruits for teaching positions find it extremely expensive to live in the school district because finding anything affordable is almost impossible. The 2026 average home price in the Big Sky School District is $1.8 million, up 4.9% over the past year, and the rent tops $4,200 a month, according to Zillow.  “A decade ago, the Big Sky School District created an intentional, multi-phase plan to develop various types of affordable housing accessible for our teachers and support staff,” Dr. Dustin Shipman, Big Sky School District #72 Superintendent, said.

The average teacher salary in Montana is about $58,000 a year, according to Montana.gov. Over 9% of full-time general education teachers leave the teaching profession each year, higher than the national average. Teachers who remain in the profession are more likely than the average Montana worker to hold a second job. 26% of Montana’s full-time general education teachers earned income from a second job outside of the public school system during the 2022-23 school year. These teachers worked multiple jobs to supplement their income throughout the year, and not just during the summer months. “This is what it looks like when a community decides that the people who teach our children deserve to live among us, not just work here,” Danny Bierschwale, Executive Director of the Big Sky Resort Area District, said. “Community collaboration was a critical component to completing this project. Big Sky is not only a top resort destination but also a vibrant community that takes care of one another.”

For the six employees now living on campus, the new homes offer more than an affordable place to live. They also mean less time spent commuting through the canyon and more time in the community where they work. The project provides a small but tangible response to one of the biggest challenges facing resort communities like Big Sky: making sure the people who keep the community running can afford to live there.