2024 Election Supporting DATA
This is the supporting data that was mentioned in our school board candidate interviews and on our recent Election Postcard mailer. Scroll down to see info on the Wasatch School District enrollment numbers vs. budget increases, Future Schools Committee, new high school lease revenue bond, and the Heber City CRA.
(click on pictures to enlarge)
RAW Enrollment Data:
Click Here for- NEW 2025 Enrollment Numbers! We GRAMA requested the 10-1-24 report to the state.
The Wasatch Learning Academy started in 2019. Before that, the TOTAL enrollment numbere=s WERE IN PERSON enrollment. 2024-25 IN PERSON enrollment is 7,235. Total 2019-2020 IN PERSON enrollment is 7,146. That’s a difference of only 89 students in 5 years.
****Yet this Wasatch School District PRESENTATION was shared with the public before the August 16, 2023 Truth In Taxation meeting! (Go to 5:32 into recording to hear their info on enrollment growth in the previous 4 years.)
All data retrieved from the Utah State Office of Education website
- https://wasatchtaxpayersassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024FallEnrollmentDemographicsGrade.xlsx
- https://wasatchtaxpayersassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2023FallEnrollmentGradeLevelDemographics.xlsx
- https://wasatchtaxpayersassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2022FallEnrollmentGradeLevelDemographics.xlsx
- https://wasatchtaxpayersassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2021FallEnrollmentGradeLevelDemographics.xlsx
- https://wasatchtaxpayersassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2020FallEnrollmentGradeLevelDemographics.xlsx
- https://wasatchtaxpayersassociation.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2019FallEnrollmentGradeLevelDemographics.xlsx
Recent articles have had differing enrollment statistics reported by Wasatch School District:
https://www.kpcw.org/wasatch-county/2023-11-02/wasatch-county-schools-projected-to-grow-most-in-utah
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This is why your taxes increased in 2024 for all the school district levies. After over 400 people showed up to share their comments at the truth & taxation mtg on 8-16-24, they waited until the next mtg to do this. (Only Marianne Allen voted no, the rest of the 5 member board voted yes.)
WSD increased all these levies at this 8-22-23 meeting– 4:15 min into the recording- (they verbally listed the number of the levy, and the rate they changed it to in recording) Only Marianne Allen voted no, the rest of the 5 member board voted yes. In fact, she had to ask for the chair to ask if there were any NAY votes. The school board isn’t used to that…
school levy- by $21,358,083 -geo bond payment by $3,806,550 -cap levy- by $ 29,424,329 -voted local levy- by $18,350,330 – board local levy- by $23,621,493 – charter school levy- by $516,483
ANNUAL BUDGET INFO– FOR 11 YEARS OF BUDGET INFO GO TO THIS WSD PAGE
WSD-fy2025 budget Report & Amended 2024 2025- $163,456,444
FY2025-5-year-comparison.xls 8-2024-WSD Debt Service Schedule.pdf
Total School Administration costs: 2021/$4,016,761 — 2022/$4,424,336 — 2023/$4,729,406 —2024/$5,323,390 — 2025/ $6,196,476
YET: Total Wasatch SD Enrollment- 2019/ 7,146 —2020/ 9,061 (covid) —2021/ 8,731 — 2022/ 8,793 — 2023/ 8,667 — projected 2024/ 8,548
6-8-2023 GRAMA request- Full ’24 Budget, amended ’23 budget- WSD GRAMA request 6-8-23 fy24 BUDGET REPORT (see more GRAMA info below this budget) Here are recent enrollment numbers since 2018- Enrollment- 2018-2023 per district -Utah
2021 – amended- 112,139,818 (original budget presented 98,690,402) $13,449,416 increase?
2022- amended –128,389,413 (original budget 123,249,413) $5,140,000 increase?
2023- amended- 167,176,588 (original budget 135,077,420) $32,099,168 increase?
2024- 234,446,919
**WSD budgets for the last 4 years- increased over $135 mil.
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EXTRA FUTURE SCHOOLS COMMITTEE INFO- GO HERE This was a supposed community committee to give our school district input on why their last 2019 bond failed, and how to manage future enrollment growth to have a shared plan that the community could buy into. That’s not quite how it progressed.
This is a part of the survey of what citizens felt was important to them:
****To hear the TRUTH about this process, this video is A MUST SEE. Kevin Payne, a Midway City Councilman who was a Future Schools Project Committee member who gave his report to the public officials at the 7/27/22 Interlocal Meeting. He shared that the process was NOT as fair and unbiased as he had hoped. He was the Midway City Councilman who represented that City, and one of 5 people who did the Alternative Master Plan (below) and tried to work WITH the school district to give the public fiscally responsible options. Neither the school board, superintendent, or Randy Larsen (bond counsel), responded or answered any concerns on the Future Schools PROCESS.
Our Alternative Master Plan Presented to the School District in 2022- We could have saved taxpayers over $100 Million, and had it completed way before the 2026 new high school will be finished. It would have had a great addition to the current high school, and a brand new STEM, 9th Grade, or Magnet School where the old Timpanogos Jr High currently is.
We mentioned how our alternative master plan (above) compared to the new school in Washington County, or St. George area. See article-The NEW St. George, state of the art career tech high school. There’s also the Ogden Tech High School completed this year for only $14 MIL! The new 17,578-square-foot structure can accommodate 300 students. These state of the art new designs are much cheaper, and were built much faster, than our 400,000 sqft new North Fields High School that will cost around $170MIL and will be half full when opened in 2026!
LEASE REVENUE BOND Legislative Committee Meeting from October 11, 2023 (click on #2 Lease revenue bonds, to prompt discussion) where the Wasatch School District was mentioned a few times (7:30, 20:20, 39:00 into recording) by legislators about their abuse of this process, when we voted down the 2019 new high school bond then our 5 member school board passed the lease revenue bond 3 years later for the same project. Randy Larsen was our bond attorney for this new North Fields high school, and testifies here. Keep in mind that general obligation (GO) bonds (that the voters get to decide, is guaranteed by the STATE. Lease revenue bonds are NOT. Also, a GO bond retires after it’s paid off, but lease revenue bonds do NOT, unless it is purposefully removed by the entity who originated it. More financial info on our lease revenue bond is here.
***Wasatch County School District Board of Education Study Session (audio) August 8, 2023. Here’s the work meeting where they discussed the tax increase will help pay cash for an elementary school. Go to 17:30ish into recording to start discussion about elementaries and 22:30 to talk about $25-35 MIL cash for elementary. The capital fund is a SLUSH FUND, and they talk about how future school boards could do anything they want with the money, it doesn’t have to be spent on the elementary that they identified then. They love to talk about how they will save taxpayers money in interest rates, but never mention how this takes the voters out of the process as required per state code. Tyler Bluth, Heber Seat D (up for re-election in 2026) actually said (26:40) “God bless ’em”, referencing any future school board who tries to pass a general obligation bond by the voters in the future.
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The Heber City Community Reinvestment Area (CRA) proposal for Wasatch School District and Wasatch County to donate a portion of their property tax revenues to Heber City to revitalize Heber Main Street has been discussed for years. Originally, Heber City approached these entities just for downtown Main Street reinvestment. In the last few years, the CRA zones kept expanding to all of Main Street, out by the airport, and west by the train depot. Both the Wasatch School District and the Wasatch County Council are not eager to agree to this proposal in 2024, but the Heber City Council is approaching the WSD again in the October 2024 Wasatch School Board meeting.
Stay tuned…..