Tooele district warns of tight budget, proposes limited use of reserves to staff two new high schools

Tooele School District business administrator Lark Reynolds told trustees the district faces a tight fiscal year ahead and presented options that include limited, planned use of general‑fund reserves to cover personnel and opening costs for two new high schools.

Reynolds said the district’s unassigned general‑fund balance stood at about $20.5 million at the end of the last fiscal year, with a separate committed employee‑benefit reserve of roughly $5.5 million. “Simply put, if you ask people throughout the state, it's the formula is obviously the students divided by the number of teachers,” Reynolds said in a wide‑ranging presentation on staffing ratios, fund balances and capital funding.

The presentation laid out three pressures: (1) projected cost increases including a possible 4% statewide WPU (weighted pupil unit) increase and…