With state lawmakers setting a base budget early in the session, Utah school districts have a good idea of what to expect for the coming school year. At this point, the Park City School District will see an additional $1.2 million, but will still need to increase taxes.
Lawmakers added $400 million in new funding to the public education base budget including money to cover student growth, inflation, as well as $1,500 bonuses for teachers and $1,000 bonuses for many other school staff members.
That, says Park City School District Business Administrator Todd Hauber, has put the district in great financial shape for the coming school year.
“For the most part, we're looking good and really solid coming into the next year,” Hauber said. “I presented it to the board last night of the things that have passed, it's looking like the school district will be ahead about $1.2 million dollars in state funding. So, we're pretty excited about that.”
He expects the bonuses will be included in next month’s payroll.
The Park City Board of Education kicked off its discussion for next year’s budget at Tuesday’s meeting.
“We did our budget outlook as to what funding sources can be expected both from the federal and the state levels, and then preliminary estimates on what property taxes might look like for the upcoming year,” Hauber said. “And so, with that revenue picture in frame, we can start building in what the needs are, and what we can fund for the upcoming school year.”
Even with the additional million dollars, Hauber says taxes will go up for next year to pay for the employee compensation package approved last year.