USDB committee lays out six-month plan to answer legislature on services, staffing and funding

The USDB standing committee agreed March 11 to a concentrated six-month work plan to answer questions from the Legislature about the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind’s scope of services, funding and relationship with local education agencies, and to prepare staffing recommendations and short-term fixes for the current school year.

The committee’s work responds to intent language and memoranda from the Education Appropriations Committee and the Public Education Appropriations Subcommittee and will be produced within the constraints of the state appropriation currently described in the meeting as a roughly $55,000,000 base budget, committee members and staff said.

Scott Jones, superintendent, told the committee that “we have to work off the appropriations and the base budget, you know, which is 55,000,000, roughly,” and said the directive originates from legislation and the appropriation language the committee has in its backup materials. The committee discussed how to use the memorandum on page 57 of the Public Education Appropriation (PEA) booklet and a specific Education Appropriations Committee (EAC) motion as primary guides for its next six months of work.

Why it matters: the Legislature has requested a review of USDB governance, role in public education, scope of services, funding of students, obligations of students’ resident local education agencies (LEAs) and capital facilities. The…