State board hears monthly budget report, delays discretionary fund action to later meeting

Deputy Superintendent of Operations Scott Jones presented the Utah State Board of Education's required monthly budget report at the board's Sept. 11 meeting, outlining the agency's year-end closing packet, ongoing reconciliations with State Finance, and audit exposure.

Jones told the board, "This is the required monthly budget report," and said the board and public were being provided the submitted closing packet for state fiscal year 2025. He said the packet is subject to review by State Finance and that formal decisions about carry-forward balances and use of funds will come back to the board through the finance committee and at future board meetings.

The budget briefing matters because the board now oversees financial operations for the entity referenced in the packet and because the state's Minimum School Program (MSP) and related federal funding create multiple external audit requirements. Jones said the MSP budget totals are large and that the office uses monthly reconciliations to manage internal controls.

Board members pressed staff on audit cadence and checks. Member Earl asked whether the board's finances are audited the same way local education agencies are; Jones said the board is subject to several external reviews, including the Office of the State Auditor's audit of the Minimum School Program and the federal "single audit" that applies when an entity receives more than the federal threshold of grant funds. He also described routine, internal monthly reconciliations against the State Finance reporting system known as Vantage Now and said those reconciliations were instituted as part of internal-control improvements when the board took over financial operations.

Member Boggess asked how board members or the public can find detailed line-item spending, including memberships, travel, motel costs, and leave-hours expenditures. Jones offered to take members through the budget tool offline and said staff would prepare a short video demonstrating how the public can drill into the tool to locate those details.

The board also discussed the discretionary fund report. Member Davis said the finance committee had made several recommendations, and that one committee motion had been to use discretionary money for an essay contest to mark a celebration. The committee's recommendations will be agendized for action at an upcoming full-board meeting; members noted a misunderstanding about whether the committee's essay-contest recommendation would appear on the current meeting's agenda. No board vote or formal action was taken on the discretionary fund at the Sept. 11 meeting.

Throughout the discussion, Jones emphasized transparency and the availability of staff to walk board members and the public through the online reporting tool. He cautioned that while staff strive to avoid errors, occasional non-material miscoding can occur and will be corrected.

No motions or votes were recorded on the monthly budget packet or on discretionary fund recommendations during the meeting. Finance committee recommendations will return to the full board for potential action at a later date.