Utah State Board approves staff legislative requests, names WPU top funding priority; several code changes advanced

The Utah State Board of Education on Oct. 15 approved most staff-led legislative requests, moved a package of statutory changes to legislators, and placed a 2% increase to the Weighted Pupil Unit (WPU) above the routine inflationary adjustment as its top funding priority for the 2026 session.

Deputy Superintendent Elise Nui told the board the board is in the legislative-preparation phase and that staff had grouped proposals into funding requests, statutory requests and feedback on legislator drafts. She said staff brought a mix of technical corrections and substantive changes, including fixes to conflicting reintegration-plan citations, clarifications to pupil-transportation calculations, and several school-discipline and school-based mental-health clarifications.

The board approved most staff requests after a series of votes and divisions: it split out the interstate school psychologist compact and several other items for separate consideration, and ultimately voted to forward the remaining staff requests to legislators. The board also approved a set of funding requests and an internal re‑packaging of several critical USBE FTE requests into a single prioritized ask.

Board members debated and voted on multiple discrete statutory and funding items during the session. Member Kelly successfully moved that USBE work with the legislature to ensure federal Title funds continue to serve intended students and to direct staff to work with a legislator on a revenue-neutral plan; that motion was amended on the floor and passed unanimously with one member absent.

Member Carrie’s motion to ask legislators to remove language permitting use of driver‑education funds for pupil transportation and other broad education expenditures in 53F‑7‑201 also passed unanimously, after members said the change would preserve driver-education funding for waivers, equipment and student testing needs.

Board debate included…