Utah State Board of Education staff presented an extended update on USIMS (Utah Schools Information Management System), the multi‑year project to consolidate multiple legacy systems and data feeds into a cloud‑based platform supporting educator, finance and student domains.

Chief product owner and program manager Katrina Brinkley summarized goals and structure: reengineer core data collections per legislative direction, reduce manual LEA reporting by automating APIs, consolidate 28 legacy systems and provide a single login with modular domain‑focused working groups. Brinkley said the enabling statute cited for the project is legislative code 53e‑3‑518, which instructs USBE to reengineer core data collections and reporting capabilities.

The nut graf: USIMS aims to centralize data and reduce LEA burden, using modern standards (Ed‑Fi) and APIs; staff reported appropriation and near‑term resource constraints that will shape implementation speed.

Staff told the committee the project is funded with a $17,200,000 appropriation for USIMS development and that roughly $604,000 has been spent to date from that appropriation. Brinkley said the appropriation is intended to fund the current development effort and that the plan is to transition USIMS operations into USBE’s recurring IT budget after development is complete. She estimated current contractor support at roughly 43 engineers and predicted that, once the initial development concludes (about 18 months from present), staffing would be reduced to an estimated 8–10 FTE engineers within USBE, which will slow the pace of new feature delivery.

Mark Waddops, product owner for the student domain, described the “student backpack” implementation (legislative reference 53e‑3‑511) and noted recent data integrations: attendance APIs and Utah Aspire Plus assessment scores are now available for testing; the team is implementing data movement incrementally with SIS vendors. Don Moody, finance product owner, described pilots with finance vendors for budget and actual submissions via API, and noted a phased approach that will include parallel CSV submissions before fully switching to USIMS. Tim Davis reviewed educator‑domain work (licensing, background checks, and educator preparation program integration).

Staff also discussed risks and constraints: multiple SIS vendors with varied implementations, vendor dependency for integration timelines, and the need to manage technical debt created during rapid development. Brinkley said the appropriation is not time‑limited for development use but is expected to be expended in roughly 18 months; afterward annual maintenance and further development would be funded from USBE’s IT budget. Committee members asked about LEA readiness; staff said many districts and charters already use vendor products that can be made compatible and that grants have been available to help LEAs migrate off unsupported systems.

Ending: Staff will continue monthly updates to the finance committee, run vendor pilots, and return with implementation timelines and budget‑transition plans as USIMS moves from heavy contractor development to in‑house maintenance.