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Show Grand District schools to receive $2,087,098 in '77-78 . i school District will trl1VKS-,','-S,,rl0'-V'''' ,r as result of ui-liiMis "bv lhe ig7 Utah . i.iuro. I'stimatt'il opcr.it- S ds in H77.78 "ill 'Lhlc-a-pupil unit, com- p.ueo Willi l,7').N,Ml) or $lSiiS per weighted pupil unit during the l'Po-77 selioiil year. l'heso were some of (he facts reported by Utah I-oim-ilalinn, ilu- private research organialion, in an analysis of school financial trends within the stale. The Foundation study points out that state and local funds tor public school operations in Utah have been rising at an average rate of 13 each year over the past several years. It notes that while part of this increase is due to inflation and higher enrollments, a substantial substan-tial part is attributed to other factors such as (I) higher salaries, (2) expanded bene-bls, bene-bls, (.1) reductions in class size, (-1) added noninstruction-al noninstruction-al personnel, and (5) the introduction of new programs. Projections made by Utah I iiiindalion and other groups have indicated that school enrollments in Utah will climb by I ()(),()()() pupils over the next ten years. ' Uased on this estimate and assuming continuation con-tinuation of the cost trends of lhe past five years, school operating expenditures in Utah will exceed $1 billion annually by the 1486-87 school year. At that time, school costs in Utah will be rising at a rate of more than $1.30 million each year. Throughout the state, local operating funds for schools will rise from $317.4 million in 1476- 77 to $357.7 million in 1477- 78. In addition to this increase in operating funds, the 1977 Legislature also ap- proved a new school building aid program which will allocate allo-cate $11.4 million in state building aid plus another $1 million for a long fund to assist a limited number of school districts that are unable to complete building projects from existing resources. Utah's guaranteed basic school program was raised from $683 per weighted-pupil unit in 1976-77 to $732 per weighted-pupil unit in 1977-78. 1977-78. Increases were also provided pro-vided for the voted leeway program, transportation, retirement, re-tirement, and a number of special purpose grants, such as elementary music, gifted and talented students, career development, textbooks, and lab fees, and experimental programs. New appropriations totaling $4.8 million were made for reducing classroom size, bilingual education, utilities utili-ties and insurance, and teaching teach-ing the responsibility of parenthood. According to the Foundation analysis, $53,515,171 was appropriated ap-propriated in 1977-78 for school retirement and the employers share of Federal Social Security costs for school employees. Concern about rapidly rising retirement costs for school and other public employees prompted the 1977 Legislature to authorize an actuarial study of Utah's retirement system. The study will be made to determine if state retirement benefits can be or should be coordinated with Federal Social Security benefits. |