The Park City School District is bolstering its elementary programs in the fall with four licensed art teachers and two new social workers, aiming to improve the arts experience and provide more support for struggling students. The school board approved the additional positions last month as par t of its budgeting process for the upcoming school year. Superintendent Lyndsay Huntsman said this week that the Park City Education Foundation has historically funded portions of the visual arts program, and the district wanted to shift the financial responsibility to its budget instead of the nonprofit’s. “That was an effort to off-ramp some of the funding the Education Foundation has provided for us, essentially in perpetuity, which is not the goal,” Huntsman said. “They live and breathe to provide seed funding for us to innovate and enhance our student experience, not to fund things in perpetuity, so we’re able to free up some dollars for them to do more innovative programming.” The district will retain its partnership with Kimball Art Center, but it is ending the parent-led volunteer art program at Jeremy Ranch Elementary School. Each of the district’s four elementary schools will instead have a licensed art instructor. The elementary schools will also have designated social workers on campus. Previously, two social workers split their time between the four schools, which Huntsman said was ineffective if a student was in crisis because there was no guarantee a social worker would be in the building instead of across town at a different elementary school. Now, the district’s six schools, including the middle and high schools, will have a full-time social worker stationed on campus daily. The new positions are included in the district’s $79 million budget for next school year, which is $44 million lower than the budget approved for the 2025-26 school year. Business Administrator Randy Upton said the district has been able to lower its budget — and avoid a tax increase for the second year in a row — by repurposing funds when employees leave, or programs end. “We’re continually scrubbing programs because maybe a previous person knew what that budget was for, but there’s not a need for it anymore,” Upton said. “We’ll be aggressive about expenditures, and we’re trying to be a little more conservative on revenues.” Upton said the budget is also lower because multiple expenses over the past few years have been a one-time occurrence, such as the construction of the Treasure Mountain Sports Complex or the renovation of Dozier Field. Huntsman said there were no cuts for next year, but the district has been combining or eliminating certain positions if an employee leaves or retires. “It really is dependent on what that individual was doing,” she said. “As we’ve consolidated into six schools versus seven, we’re recognizing that people may be able to take on more because we’re streamlining our efforts across the six sites.” Upton said the budget was built with an enrollment decline of 55 students in mind, which has been a trend in the Park City School District. He said the decline may affect the budget, but likely not until next year. “The bulk of our funding for the new year is based on membership for the prior year,” Upton said. “We haven’t built in any growth as far as students are concerned.” The state Legislature sets the base budget amount for districts, which then becomes a “moving target” as administrators work to adjust it according to enrollment, payroll costs and other factors, like contributions from the Park City Education Foundation. Upton said the budget is often revisited multiple times each year, with the board approving changes or minor shifts as more information becomes available. Upton emphasized the district’s “valiant effort” to repurpose funds instead of raising property taxes, praising Huntsman and the rest of the administrative team for approaching the budget with a “strategic” mindset. “For the taxpayer, for the parent who has a student in our district, you can sleep at night knowing we’re providing them a great education and being fiscal stewards because the fact is we haven’t raised taxes for two years, we’ve been able to give employees raises and we’re working on repurposing funds rather than just saying, ‘Give us more,’” Upton said. Huntsman said investing in people is always the district’s priority because it gives students a better education. “We’ve been really good about buying all the shiny new things because there’s always a shiny new thing in education, but that’s not what has the most impact on students,” she said. “The greatest impact is that relationship with a caring adult and the skills they’re acquiring when they’re in that classroom setting. We don’t need to go out and buy all these trinkets, so to speak, to educate our kids. What we need to do is build the capacity of the people we have to ensure the highest quality of education.” The post Park City schools will have licensed art teachers, new social workers in the fall appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less