Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Budget topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
District previews 2026-27 budget: WPU rise, $5M in at-risk funding, limited COLA
Summary
Ogden School District officials previewed the 2026-27 budget: the state's WPU rose 4.2% (to $48.70), student-at-risk funding is projected to add roughly $5 million, a one-time $770,000 guaranteed school-land trust allocation may arrive, and salary/benefit costs will constrain district cost-of-living adjustments.
Zane Wilson Hume presented the district's preliminary 2026-27 budget picture, telling the board that the legislature increased the WPU by 4.2% (bringing the WPU to $48.70) and that new and expanded state line items will affect district allocations.
"The WPU value is now $48.70," Zane said, explaining that funding is calculated on prior-year average daily membership and that the district's enrollment decline will reduce some state revenue. He said a new literacy-intervention line item should deliver a little over $500,000 and that student-at-risk funding will generate roughly $5,000,000 for the district next year.
Zane warned that other state line items were cut, and that the district will use at-risk funding to maintain programs dropped elsewhere: "We're going to be using that risk funding to help support all our students in those programs that are really essential," he said. He also noted a one-time projected state guarantee to school-land trust of about $770,000 and cautioned that the district will treat that as one-time revenue.
The preview highlighted capital projects and debt-service planning: the Hillcrest Elementary project budget was reviewed earlier in committee at $52,700,000; turf replacement work was already underway at several high schools; a grant for an additional field and turf work was noted. Zane outlined a plan to capture a future levy drop into the capital projects fund to smooth a potential 2028 bond ask for junior-high replacements.
On compensation, projected salary-and-benefit increases total about $4.8 million; health-insurance premium increases limited the scope for an across-the-board COLA. To help employees, the district offered a one-time $500 stipend to certain education-support professionals who are topped out on the salary schedule.
The board was told the district will hold a public budget hearing June 18 to adopt a tentative budget and that final tax rates and membership counts will be confirmed before formal adoption.
