FARMINGTON -- Davis School District officials are considering options and gathering information to determine ways to trim between $7 million and $8 million from the district's budget for the 2011-12 school year.
For the third year in a row, the district, like other districts in the state, must make some tough decisions, said Davis School District Assistant Superintendent Craig Poll on Thursday.
For two years, the district has collectively had to cut almost $61 million from its budget.
The budget for the 2010-2011 school year was $385 million. The budget for 2011-2012 has to be approved by the Davis School Board by June 22.
District officials will not know if they plan to recommend a property tax increase until sometime in June, when they receive the certified property tax rate from Davis County officials. Not all of the school district's budget comes from the Legislature. Some of its revenues come from property taxes, and a small portion comes from federal funding.
Craig Carter, the district's business administrator, said he does not think the district's revenues for the upcoming year will remain the same as the 2010-11 year.
Poll said the cuts could have been worse for 2011-12 if Davis legislators, mainly within the House of Representatives, hadn't listened to the concerns of school district officials.
Legislators at the 2011 session did provide education funding for growth that equalled $2.3 million for the district. They also allocated additional funds, but the extra funding will not be enough to cover all of the increased costs, administrators said.
For example, Davis School District has to come up with an additional $1.5 million to cover retirement costs, Poll said. Also, the district has to find funding for increased costs for health insurance, said Craig Carter, the district's business administrator.
Increasing fuel costs will also affect the district's budget.
The district also needs to find funding to open Centennial Junior High School in August, as well as funding for an additional 900 students expected to enroll throughout the Davis district.
Poll said that, if the district used the same formula it used in 2008, it would have had 175 more teachers for the 2010-11 school year than the 2008-09 school year, but instead it has had to increase class sizes.
District officials have met with employee groups, school clusters, principals and school community councils to brainstorm and receive input on where to cut.
"We've cut so much, we're asking teachers to do a lot more with less," Poll said.
Some suggestions include increasing property taxes, doing away with programs, cutting back on travel and cutting back on the use of utilities.
Poll said officials also plan to not fill any positions once a person retires. They also have no funds to hire back teachers who were hired last fall on a one-year contract.
"We may be able to re-employ them if a position becomes available," Poll said.
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