Latest news with #USBE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Veteran educator Molly L. Hart will be Utah's next state school superintendent of public instruction
The state's next state superintendent of public instruction will be a familiar face at the Utah State Board of Education offices. Late Wednesday, board members selected fellow board member Molly L. Hart to replace Sydnee Dickson, who is expected to step down next month following nine years on the job. The board vote in favor of Hart came after Wednesday afternoon public interviews of both Hart and fellow finalist, Kane County School Superintendent L. Ben Dalton. The interviews were then followed by several hours of closed meeting board discussion. In the end, the USBE voted to appoint Hart by a vote of 12-2. Board members Christina Boggess and Emily Green cast the two opposing votes. The state board's next chief executive officer won't require a GPS app to locate her new office. Hart is currently in her second term on the state board, representing District 7 which covers southeast Salt Lake County. The board's actions followed a long day Wednesday for both Hart and Dalton. The two finalists each spent about 90 minutes being interviewed by USBE board members in a public meeting that was livestreamed on the board's YouTube channel. Each educator answered a variety of questions from the board — including queries regarding the greatest financial needs in public education and supporting school teachers to questions about the evolving federal disruptions to education and how to best help students learn resilience and grit. At the conclusion of her board interview, Hart spoke of the importance 'that every Utah student gets an opportunity for a high, high quality education.' Education, she added, was a personal 'door opener.' Hart's own parents wanted her to succeed, but they didn't always know how to navigate the education system. Jobs and the day-to-day demands of supporting a family kept them from being involved in PTA and other programs. 'My family,' said Hart, 'relied on the education system to be high quality without their involvement.' 'Yes, it's fabulous when we can engage parents and find ways to engage them despite their busy lives … (but) I want the system to be excellent because we've set up systems where teachers and schools and communities can have excellent schools for everyone, no matter what.' Education, she added, 'is the ticket to freedom and the ticket to liberty … and I want that for every student in Utah.' A longtime educator, Hart brings to the superintendency more than two decades of experience in almost all aspects of the profession. She has worked in the classroom as a substitute teacher, paraprofessional and teacher — and as an assistant principal and principal. She is currently the executive director of Summit Academy, a K-12 charter school with multiple campuses in Salt Lake County. A Republican and a first-generation college graduate, Hart holds a doctorate in family-community service from Georgia's Valdosta State University and degrees in middle grades education/reading and elementary education. She has been honored with the Utah PTA Outstanding School Administrator Award. Hart and her husband, Robert, are parents of two high school children in the public school system, according to her USBE member biography. The Michigan native's hobbies include quilting, reading, running, golfing and spending time with her three dogs. She was reelected to the board last November, defeating Democrat John Arthur with 52% of the vote. Hart replaces Dickson at a turbulent moment in American K-12 education where states will likely be required to fill new roles to serve their students. Today's Department of Education is unrecognizable from the agency that existed when Hart was reelected to the USBE just months ago. Nearly half of the department's workforce has been eliminated. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March seeking the elimination of the Department of Education, saying he wants to 'return our students to the states.' Shuttering the Education Department would impact Utah students. More than 108,000 Utah K-12 children benefit from federal funds allocated by the agency, including Title I money. Many worry kids from disadvantaged homes could be harmed without DOE allotments. Several state leaders, including Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, have argued that Utah is ready and able to support local students of all backgrounds, while minimizing Washington, D.C., bureaucracy.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Audit: Utah state school board falling short of compliance oversight duties on building inspection projects
The Utah State Board of Education is not directly responsible for ensuring building code compliance at the state's K-12 public schools — that's the job of the local districts. But the board is tasked with verifying compliance with inspection requirements and enforcing preconstruction requirements — which they are not consistently doing. That was the conclusion of an audit performed by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General. The findings were shared Tuesday with the Legislative Audit Subcommittee. 'The impact of insufficient inspections and untrained building officials can materialize as a risk to school property and the life and safety of school building occupants,' the audit report stated. Independent, certified building inspectors utilized by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General reported finding compliance problems with recent construction problems, 'which should generally not occur if local education agencies (LEAs) comply with building code requirements,' according to the report. The audit noted that local agencies are required to complete USBE's preconstruction checklist and enforcement mechanisms before construction begins. But USBE has reportedly never used them. The general lack of board enforcement of preconstruction requirements appears to have contributed to persistent noncompliance among the state's LEAs, the audit report noted. 'However, some LEAs have reported that USBE is not timely in processing their submissions, and both contractors and LEAs have reported that USBE has not generally enforced compliance. 'USBE's lack of timely processing of required permit submittals likely impacts its ability to enforce deadlines when the state board itself is not keeping up. Because of this situation, LEAs often proceed with construction before complying with rules.' The state school board's responsibility to verify that school building inspections occur 'stems from the importance of assuring the life and safety of school building occupants,' the report added. 'Qualified inspections verify compliance with the state-adopted building codes, which exist to establish minimum standards for the protection of property and the safety of building occupants.' The audit went on to explain that the board is the authorizer of permanent occupancy of a school building. Utah Code requires that the state superintendent shall either issue a certificate of occupancy or deliver a letter to the local districts indicating deficiencies in building code compliance or inspection, which must be addressed. 'However, the current process reportedly does not yield any information which would allow the state board to identify; it is essentially a rubber stamp.' The state board's school construction specialist reported to the Office of the Legislative Auditor General that he lacks the tools to adequately enforce compliance. 'The current process involves receiving inspection summary documents via email and manually placing them into project folders, and a tracking database is inconsistently updated,' the audit reported. 'USBE's document management system is ill equipped to efficiently manage the volume of monthly inspection reports and does not facilitate enforcement of noncompliance.' The independent building inspectors utilized by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General recommended the creation of an online document management system to maintain all the state-required documentation — a recommendation echoed by local and state officials. Auditors concluded that 'years of neglect' suggests that oversight of local district school construction and inspection is not a priority for the board: 'USBE's primary focus is not construction; while the state board employs one person with construction expertise to oversee this process, one position is reportedly insufficient to fulfill state requirements.' The construction projects reviewed by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General generally met the intent of providing safe, functional school buildings. 'However, our independent, certified building inspectors found compliance problems with recent construction projects, which should generally not occur if LEAs comply with building code requirements,' the audit report noted. 'Inexperienced and unqualified building officials likely contributed to noncompliance. However, USBE's lack of verification and enforcement of inspection requirements may have contributed to the noncompliance found.' The building inspectors contracted by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General identified problems with code compliance at a selection of local school buildings. The most significant discoveries, according to building inspectors, are firewall compliance flaws. 'Multiple schools did not build required firewalls in compliance with code,' according to the report. 'Firewalls are highly regulated because if a firewall fails, fires can spread more rapidly, increasing risk to property and building occupants.' In their Tuesday report presentation, auditors noted there are other methods generally in place to protect against fire. The audit also listed several state-level oversight deficiencies and needs identified by the independent inspectors which likely contributed to the LEA noncompliance outlined in the building code review, including: USBE has not outlined clear expectations for what should be included in required plan reviews, what inspections are required, how often inspections should occur, and how they should be reported for verification. There is insufficient training for those responsible for ensuring compliance with building codes. USBE needs a better document management system, which facilitates verification of compliance. USBE's reporting and verification process needs improvements. Hiring contractors to build Utah's public schools, according to the Office of the Legislative Auditor General, must be done through a competitive bid. The office found that one unidentified school district's procurement practice was 'uncommon' when compared with a sample of 13 other districts in the state. 'Although we did not establish undue bias nor illegal procurement methods, the district's practices exhibit the appearance of impropriety,' the report noted. 'The school district should conduct procurement of construction services in a competitive manner, avoiding the appearance of impropriety.' This district in question had contracted exclusively with a single general contractor on 18 school construction projects since 2014, according to the report. For the 18 projects, only two bid solicitations were reportedly issued. The 2013 solicitation resulted in a $135.5 million contract, under which 14 construction projects were completed over a period of nine years. The 2023 solicitation was reportedly issued for four construction projects with a budgeted cost of about $126 million, which have yet to be completed. 'The general contractor that the district has almost exclusively used since at least 2014 appears to often offer services to the district for a much lower price than other bidders. However, the school district only retains recent bid documentation, making it difficult to entirely validate this claim,' the audit noted. The Office of the Legislative Auditor General made several recommendations to improve compliance oversight on Utah's K-12 public school construction projects, including: The USBE should develop sufficient internal controls to functionally verify and enforce compliance with its pre-construction and inspection verification requirements. The USBE should develop or procure an online document management system, or portal, to maintain all the state required construction and inspection documentation to enable verification of compliance with statute and Administrative Rule. The USBE should provide training for local education agencies so that they understand their responsibilities and are aware of the state board's code compliance requirements. The USBE should implement a standardized cost reporting system, require construction managers at local education agencies to report all associated construction project costs according to standard criteria, and make it available to relevant state agency and local education agency officials. The Utah State Board of Education should communicate expectations for required plan reviews, types of inspections, the frequency of inspections, and reporting requirements for functional verification. The Legislature should consider prioritizing an audit of local education agency practices for procurement of construction and related services. In response to Tuesday's report, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Sydnee Dickson wrote in a letter that the audit report will be referred to board leadership 'for consideration of involvement of the full board and next steps that will be taken to address the risks identified in the audit.' The letter added board leadership discussion of the report will happen no later than Aug. 31. During Tuesday's Legislative Audit Subcommittee meeting, Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, called the prevalence of local district building officials working in Utah schools without proper certification 'very problematic.' She asked the audit team if there were consequences for not following adequate building inspection rules. The auditors were not aware of any code-prescribed consequences. House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, acknowledged the state school board having statutory-required compliance oversight over the construction of new schools — so criticism is valid if that's not happening. 'But I do question,' he said, 'whether or not USBE should have oversight.' Public school buildings are typically being constructed with local money, not state funds. Plus, Schultz added, members of the state school board are not construction experts. It's the board's job to educate kids. There's no shortage of independent building inspectors for hire. 'I do think that is the way to make sure that the building codes are followed. I think that's what needs to happen and should be happening,' he said. USBE Deputy Superintendent of Operations Scott Jones told the subcommittee Tuesday that he appreciates the collaboration with the auditors, adding that his office had requested the audit years ago. 'It's taken some time, and I think the time is well worth it, because we are at a decisive point in the future of oversight of school construction,' said Jones. Jones noted the logistical and staffing challenges that the USBE faces while working with the many LEAs during the oversight compliance process of each building. He added his office is agreeable to collaborating with lawmakers to optimize public education in Utah.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Search for Utah's next superintendent of public instruction down to 2 finalists
The search for Utah's next state superintendent of public instruction has been narrowed down to two finalists — both with deep ties to the state's K-12 public education system. Following an 'extensive search and review process,' a Utah State Board of Education search committee has selected L. Ben Dalton and Molly L. Hart for final consideration for the position. Once selected, the new superintendent will succeed Sydnee Dickson, who has served as state superintendent for nine years. Dickson is expected to step away from the job next month. Dalton has served as superintendent of Kane County School District since 2016. He previously served at the helm of the Garfield School District. A native of Minersville, Beaver County, Dalton has over two decades of experience in public education and was named Utah's Superintendent of the Year in 2022. He holds a doctorate in leadership and technology 'and has been recognized for his commitment to academic excellence and rural education,' according to a USBE release. Hart serves as executive director of Summit Academy, a K-12 charter school with multiple campuses in Salt Lake County. She has more than 20 years of experience in education — with roles ranging from teacher to principal across multiple states and grade levels. Hart holds a doctorate in family-community services and has been honored with the Utah PTA Outstanding School Administrator Award and represents District 7 on the USBE. She is, according to the USBE release, 'a strong advocate for student achievement and community engagement.' On Wednesday, May 21, Dalton and Hart will participate in a public interview process with the board at the USBE building from 2:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The meeting will be open to the public, who are invited to attend the meeting in person or view it via the USBE livestream channel. During the meeting, members of the state board will interview each finalist. Following the public interviews, the board will enter a closed executive session 'to discuss the character and professional competence of the candidates,' according to the USBE release. The USBE anticipates then returning to open session directly after the executive session to announce its selection for Utah's next state superintendent of public instruction that same evening. Dickson announced last January that she was stepping down from her post as state superintendent of public instruction. A decadeslong educator, Dickson was tapped as one of the five state superintendents in 2016 after working at the state's education office since 2007. 'It has been an honor and privilege to serve the students, educators, and families of Utah,' she said in a statement announcing her decision to end her tenure. 'I am incredibly proud of the work we have accomplished together to improve educational outcomes and opportunities for all children.' During her tenure, Dickson played a key role in creating the state's Portrait of a Graduate program to prepare students for success later on in life. She also helped oversee the state's expansion of full-day kindergarten, technology enhancements in schools and dual language immersion programs. Whichever candidate is selected to be Utah's new state superintendent of public instruction will assume the job at a moment of historic disruption in the country's educational system. In March, President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking the elimination of the Department of Education — saying 'we want to return our students to the states.' More than 108,000 Utah K-12 students benefit from federal funds allocated by the DOE, including Title I money. Many worry that the upheaval of the DOE would harm kids from disadvantaged homes and communities whose schools receive allotments from the federal agency. In an op-ed, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox countered that Utah has a 'long track record of investing in education' — including supporting low-income schools. 'But we could do it with more flexibility, less bureaucracy, and greater accountability to Utah families — not Washington regulators.' The National School Lunch Program, which reimburses Utah schools and other states for students receiving free or reduced school meals, is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture — not the DOE.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Florida man arrested for allegedly flying to Utah to kidnap, marry teenager
Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. SALT LAKE CITY () — A Florida man was arrested for allegedly flying to Utah and kidnapping a teenager with the intent to marry her over the weekend, according to arrest documents. Alex Pete Guy, 33, was arrested on one count of aggravated kidnapping, which is a first-degree felony, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed in Utah County. He is accused of traveling from Florida to Utah, taking a 17-year-old girl from her home, and driving to Wyoming. The most common reasons Utah educators were disciplined over the past 9 years: USBE data Arrest documents said Guy used a rental car to pick up the victim from her Utah County home 'without her parents' knowledge or consent to marry her.' The victim confirmed that Guy had picked her up and traveled to Wyoming. The victim's mother reported that her 17-year-old daughter was missing around April 27. A friend of the victim reportedly said that the victim had been speaking to a man in his 30s online. The victim's phone was not able to be tracked because it 'only utilizes wifi connections,' police said. However, her Bluetooth headphones were tracked, and location data showed that the victim was in Wyoming. Utah officials contacted law enforcement in Wyoming and were able to locate and identify the victim using the GPS data from her headphones. 'The Defendant was interviewed and indicated that he had been talking to [the victim] online for 3 months,' arrest documents read. 'The Defendant knew that [the victim] was 17-years-old and planned to marry her.' Utah law requires a or guardians for marriages involving a minor aged 16 or 17. The consent form needs to be delivered to the county clerk in person. for marriages involving a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old. Arrest documents requested that Guy be held without bail. Denver Broncos' confidence is high after the NFL Draft We Win Injury Law: Fighting for Utah families when it matters most Woman charged with shooting, killing Ogden woman after argument Juveniles accused of setting fire in abandoned home in West Valley, investigation underway Intermountain Health offers easier, faster, and more affordable in-office hand procedures Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Utah's collective bargaining referendum hits qualifying thresholds
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah () — The referendum to overturn a law banning collective bargaining for public unions is on track to be placed on the ballot before voters. To qualify for the ballot, petitioners needed to collect 140,748 signatures representing 8% of registered voters statewide. They also have to collect 8% in 15 of Utah's 29 Senate Districts. The most common reasons Utah educators were disciplined over the past 9 years: USBE data Numbers calculated by and updated daily show that on Monday morning, over 146,000 signatures have been verified out of the over 320,000 turned in. They also reached the signature requirement in districts belonging to: Sen. John Johnson (R-Morgan) Sen. Ann Millner (R-Ogden) Sen. Jerry Stevenson (R-Syracuse) Sen. J. Stuart Adams (R-Kaysville) Sen. Todd Weiler (R-Wood Cross) Sen. Jen Plumb (D-Salt Lake City) Sen. Luz Escamilla (D-Salt Lake City) Sen. Karen Kwan (D-Kearns) Sen. Nate Blouin (D-South Salt Lake) Sen. Stephanie Pitcher (D-Millcreek) Sen. Kathleen Riebe (D-Midvale) Sen. Wayne Harper (R-West Jordan) Sen. Lincoln Fillmore (R-South Jordan) Sen. Daniel McCay (R-Riverton) Sen. Kirk Cullimore (R-Sandy) While the labor unions have met their threshold, nothing is official until the Lieutenant Governor verifies and certifies the efforts by a June 23 deadline. The numbers also have to withstand a recession-effort where groups have until June 21, 2025, to remove their signatures. This is a developing story. ABC4 will update this post as new information becomes available. MISSING: 45-year-old woman last seen in West Jordan Utah's collective bargaining referendum hits qualifying thresholds Republicans unveil proposal for $150B in new Pentagon spending New pro curling league set to start in 2026 with hopes of prolonging the Olympic spotlight Connolly to step out of top Democratic spot on Oversight panel, citing health Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
