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Show Utah State Aid School Construction Program Needs Closer Supervision The need for a continuous audit of the accounts of the local school districts participating in the emergency state-aid school construction program was emphasized by Utah Foundation, the private non-profit tax research organization, or-ganization, in a recent analysis of the present school housing hous-ing problem in Utah. According to the foundation report, state-aid disbursements dis-bursements to districts for school construction are being made on the basis of estimated rather than actual local resources. The foundation points out that the available resources j of a local district to meet its survey of a district is made and I capital outlay needs may change I considerably between the time .the time that a building is actually ac-tually constructed. The purpose jOf the state aid program is to i supplement, net replace, the re-i re-i sources of a local district when those resou'C's are insufficient to meet the district's building requirements. re-quirements. Utah Foundation reports that the state has allocated a total of S3. 9 million in state funds to local lo-cal school districts for new school construction and remodeling. As of Aug. 1, 19,, actual disbursements disburse-ments from this state-aid fund have totaled $029,538. An additional addi-tional $3,270,090 has been alio-cated alio-cated but has not been disbursed. Of this amount, $1,325,4(54 is for projects that are under contract, and $1,945,526 for projects on which the building contracts had not been awarded. On Aug. 3. 1954, Governor Lee directed that approval of future contracts from these latter funds should be withheld pending a complete in vestigation of the program. Report Notes Controversy The foundation report takes note of the controversy relating to the state-aid program for pub- I I lie school construction that has received considerable prominence in recent weeks: The basic points of contention in this controversy have been (1) whether the State Board of Education has raised the standards for the emergency state aid program above the "minimum" intended by the Legislature, Leg-islature, and (2 whether one school district (Murray) has received re-ceived special favoritism in the allocation of available state j funds. Koth tho temporary school building survey commission and the Utah Legislative Council have been critical of the school building standards for the emergency emer-gency state-aid program as being too high. The foundation study points out that "emergency" school plant needs in Garfield and Wayne districts using State Board of Education standards were computed to be more than twice as great as the total school plant needs reported by a special committee which was appointed by the Utah Legislative Council i to study the needs of these two Utah shcool districts. Costly Program According to foundation analysts, ana-lysts, the emergency school building program, if continued, will be much more costly than was at first anticipated. One estimate es-timate places the cost to the state, if the program is oontinu-ued oontinu-ued to completion under present terms, at $30 million or more. Thus far, only eight of Utah's 10 school districts have participated partici-pated in the program. Ir. order to provide facilities for the expected influx of new pupils during the next 10 years in Utah's schools, the foundation estimates than 2,750 classrooms costing in excess of $XO,()00.000 will be needed. This amount is in addition to the need for replacing re-placing or remodeling present J facilities which are now obsolete obso-lete or will become obsolete within with-in the next 10 years. The report attributes the present pres-ent school housing problem to ,n number of contributing factor.;, the most important of which are; construction postponements during dur-ing the depression. World War II, and the immediate post-war period; a changing concept of school building design and requirements; re-quirements; inflation; interstate and introsta'e population shifts, incieased attendance by the school-ago population, and a greatly increased birth rate. |