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Utah State Board reports financial solvency; excludes Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind and State Charter School Board from attestation
Summary
Deputy Superintendent of Operations Scott Jones told the Utah State Board of Education during agenda item 12 that the board is financially solvent but that his attestation excluded the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind and the State Charter School Board.
Deputy Superintendent of Operations Scott Jones told the Utah State Board of Education during agenda item 12 that the board is financially solvent and able to meet its known commitments, but he explicitly excluded the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind and the State Charter School Board from that attestation.
“I do attest, that the Utah State Board of Education, is financially solvent and sound and able to make all its known, commitments and obligations,” Jones said, adding, “I do wanna make sure though that I qualify my attestation, that I do not include the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind or the State Charter School Board in my attestation.”
The distinction matters because, Jones said, the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind (USDB) was moved under financial operations and the board earlier in the day approved prioritizing an audit of the USDB’s finances. Jones said he receives the USDB budget report from Carl Empey, the director of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind, but that he does not have the same level of oversight for the USDB or the State Charter School Board.
Jones recommended that the board consider having the State Charter School Board report its financial status directly to the State Board on a regular basis—“perhaps…at least quarterly”—so the board can review its finances in the same way it reviews USDB finances. He stressed that his remarks were not a statement that anything was wrong with those entities’ finances: “I’m not saying that anything is wrong…just from the high level view that I’m only authorized to do or provide, everything does look fine.”
Jones also reviewed the board’s discretionary funds report and noted members had two versions of the report available. A board member, Member Boggess, said she initially saw the older report; Jones confirmed an updated report was available and explained the practice of showing both the prior month and the updated month so members can compare changes.
Jones reminded the board that the meeting occurred in the fourth and final quarter of fiscal year 2025 and that year-end close activities follow the legislative session. He credited Assistant Superintendent Jacobson and her staff for leading year-end close work. Jones said the finance committee would begin review and adoption of estimates for the fiscal year 2026 budget the next day and that the committee would look more deeply at project statuses and carryforward balances as closure activities complete.
No motion text, mover or vote tallies for the earlier audit prioritization were recorded in the monthly budget report discussion; the transcript states the board “approved the prioritization of an audit of the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind’s financial” earlier that morning.
Next steps noted by Jones included finance committee review and recommendations on current projects and the FY26 estimates; he said the committee would present carryforward balances after year-end close, typically around September, at which point the upper-right reporting block would update to reflect carryforward increases.
