"If I Ever Leave, I Have a List of People That Are Going With Me:" Principals' Understandings of and Responses to Place Influences on Teacher Staffing in West Virginia.

This article examines how school principals in rural West Virginia perceive the role of place in teacher recruitment and retention amid widespread teacher shortages, using the framework of spatial in/justice—the uneven distribution of resources and opportunities across geographic spaces. Through interviews with eight principals across six diverse school districts, the study finds that principals’ definitions of place and their leadership tenure (categorized as returners, seasoned, or new-to-place) shape their staffing strategies, with returners leveraging local ties and “grow your own” approaches, while new-to-place leaders often rely on recruiting from previous schools, sometimes exacerbating inequities through intradistrict “poaching.” The findings highlight the complexity and locality-specific nature of teacher staffing challenges, problematizing broad statewide policies and underscoring the need for targeted, place-based recruitment and retention strategies that consider community attributes, principal experience, and spatial inequities. The study also points to implications for supporting principal stability, enhancing teacher preparation placements in rural areas, and conducting further qualitative research, especially in racially diverse rural contexts.