Salt Lake City schools see declining Title I, carryover tapped; district outlines allocation plan and fee changes

Business Administrator Alan Kearsley reported proposals for next year's discretionary school allocations to the Salt Lake City School District Board of Education on Feb. 4, outlining how property-tax distributions, federal grants and state programs will flow to schools and highlighting a projected drop in federal Title I funds.

Kearsley said the district distributes base funds by student counts, then layers additional allocations for English Learners and "at-risk" factors (largely free-and-reduced-price-lunch eligibility). He told the board the board-distributed student achievement funds total roughly $2.3 million, with an additional $1.4 million for ELL and $1.5 million for other at-risk allocations in the current year.

Kearsley noted an estimated $1.7 million drop in Title I (federal) funding for next year compared with current-year allocations, and said the district has become more conservative in projecting Title I because the actual federal allocation arrives after schools have already planned staffing based on earlier estimates. He said schools carried over about $5.9 million districtwide this year compared with…