Alpine School District could get nearly $3 million in classroom-reduction money next year if state officials keep their promises. But district leaders may be looking for even more money, possibly from taxpayers.
Current proposals from Gov. Mike Leavitt and legislators would bring more than $30 million in funding to reduce classroom sizes in Utah schools. Based on current funding formulas, Alpine district would receive about 9 percent, or approximately $2.7 million.Superintendent Steven Baugh said the proposal would allow the district to use half of the money for classroom reductions in the primary grades (kindergarten through second grade), which would reduce sizes in those grades by nearly three students. The other half could be used, with some flexibility, for technology purchases and portable classroom space for kindergarten through the sixth grade.
"That kind of gives you a feel for what those dollars could mean," Baugh said. "That is very, very significant."
However, with the district's current average class sizes - nearly 25 students to each teacher in grades one through four, 29-to-1 in grades five and six, 27.5-to-1 in the junior-high grades and 25.5-to-1 in high school - the proposed reductions would still leave Alpine's classrooms fairly crowded, in comparison to those in other states.
Consequently, members of the Alpine School Board are considering an Orem parent's proposal to hold an election to increase the leeway levy portion of the district's property-tax rate.
Richard Davis is proposing the district raise its leeway levy by three mills, with voter approval - raising property taxes nearly $40 on a $100,000 home and perhaps bringing in enough to money to allow Alpine to lower the ratio by another three students. But the board has raised tax rates three times since 1992, so its members aren't necessarily confident voters will approve another increase.
In 1992, voters simultaneously passed both a $30 million bond to build two new junior high schools and a two-mill leeway increase. Just two years later, the district brought a $98 million bond proposal to the voters, which they also approved.
Board members say they're also concerned because none of the class-size reduction proposals - or funds the Legislature provided in the past for reductions - have addressed secondary grades, which are among the most crowd-ed in the state. And more classrooms with fewer students may also create a problem with finding classroom space for them.
The board has charged Baugh and his staff with researching Davis' proposal, as well as looking at other projects - such as the use of $25 million in bond moneys the district has not used yet.