Utah school districts make cuts, raise taxes to make ends meet next year

SALT LAKE CITY — Many school districts along the Wasatch Front are cutting budgets again this summer while others are raising taxes to make ends meet for the 2011-12 school year.

With about $50 million in additional state money to work with and with the basic unit used to determine per-pupil funding increasing by about $240, some might assume all schools are running in the black. But lower local property-tax values in some areas and a shake-up in the way state education programs are funded have complicated matters.

"There was more money appropriated for education on the whole," said Todd Hauber, associate superintendent of business services at the State Office of Education. "But it all depends on how that money is programmed."

At the beginning of the 2011 legislative session, lawmakers made preliminary cuts to education programs then added the money back in, but not necessarily in the same places.

Depending on which state programs schools participate in, they could wind up with a net loss or a net gain for the coming year, Hauber said. For example, multiple programs designed to fund at-risk youths were consolidated, and about $8 million from those programs was put elsewhere. So districts reliant on those funds will have less to work with. Meanwhile, state funding for school districts that can't generate enough tax revenue to cover their costs increased by more than $23 million, having a positive impact on participating districts.

"Every district will have a unique story," Hauber said.

The Salt Lake School District, for instance, reports taking an overall 2.3 percent hit in state funding, due to its large population of at-risk students. But the Legislature's funding for enrollment growth benefits districts like Alpine that are rapidly expanding.

While lawmakers increased the weighted pupil unit — the per-pupil amount the state from $2,577 to $2,816, those weren't new dollars. Districts previously received money to pay for retirement benefits and Social Security in addition to WPU dollars. About $195 million was taken from the fund many districts used to pay out retirement in order to increase the WPU.

All in all, many districts are doing better than last year, but some are still hurting.

Here's a look at how some of the larger districts along the Wasatch Front are managing their finances:

Alpine

Alpine didn't face much of a budget shortage this year, according to the district, but does plan to use $7 million in one-time federal funds to pay for some ongoing and future years' expenses.