Trust Lands

"School Trusts Lands were granted by the United States to each state joining the union beginning with Ohio 1803 through Alaska in 1959. These lands were granted in trust for the support of public education. Initially, each state received one square mile in each six square mile township. As western states were added, the grants expanded to two sections per township. When Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico entered the union they were granted four sections per township."

For more information on School Trust Lands, please see the documents below:

"The Utah State Legislature passed a law in 2000 requiring every public school in the state to establish a School Community Council at the school-site level (Utah Code. Section 53A-1a-108). Two years later the legislature passed a second bill mandating several changes in the duties, powers and membership of the School Community Councils in Utah. This law took effect July 1, 2002."

For more information on School Community Councils, please see the documents below. Please visit http://www.schoollandtrust.org/ and use this website as an invaluable resource for your School Community Council.

If you're a new parent member of a School Community Council, please take the time to read the Parent Member Checklist to become familiar with your role and responsibilites on the council.  If you've been elected to serve as the Council Chair, please take the time to read the Council Chair Checklist so that you can run the counil effectively.  These checklists as well as other checklists can be found on the School LAND Trust website.

The goals of the Utah PTA Trust Lands Appointee are to:

1. Educate Utahns on the importance of school trust lands, the School LAND Trust program, and on the role of trust lands in education funding.
2. Educate parents, community councils and PTA members on the role and function of community councils, the role of PTA in community councils, and the importance of PTA involvement with community councils.
3. Advocate for PTA and trust land/community council issues with the Utah legislature, the state executive office (governor, attorney general, state treasurer), state and local school boards, the School and Institutional Trust Land Administration, and other local, state and federal policy makers.
4. Coordinate efforts to influence federal actions, policies and legislation that affect Utah trust lands.

In fiscal year 2010, the School Land Trust Program distributed almost 24.3 million dollars to the public schools in the state. The document below, prepared by the State Office of Education for the Utah State Legislature, shows how the money was spent, and how the fund has grown in the past years. This is a great summary, and would be good to bring with you when discussing Trust Land issues with policy makers.