Ogden School Board adopts final FY25 budget and sets FY26 tax rate, approves tentative FY26 budget

The Ogden City School District Board on June 19 adopted the district's final legal budget for fiscal 2024'025 and approved a tentative fiscal 2025'026 budget while choosing the certified tax-rate option that keeps district-controlled levies at the state-certified level.

Board action matters because the budget choices will guide district spending, tax collections and short-term decisions on staffing, food services and capital projects. Board members also directed staff to continue work on a structural deficit in the general fund and a shortfall in the food services fund.

Business Administrator Zane Wollstonehune presented the district budget and noted the district faces a structural shortfall in its general fund. "We do have a structural deficit in our general fund," Wollstonehune said, laying out revenue and expenditure projections that show revenue of roughly $187 million across all funds for FY26 and budgeted expenditures near $206 million across funds in the year shown in the presentation. Wollstonehune told the board the district has budgeted a 0.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment, longevity and step…