The Utah state school board is failing to adequately oversee school construction in the state, allowing Utah school districts to bypass building code and inspection requirements on new projects, state auditors found.
The poor oversight stems, in part, from the Utah State Board of Education’s lack of resources, staff and adequate document management systems, according to a new report from the Legislative Auditor General.
“While [schools] are responsible for their own compliance, USBE has not fulfilled its oversight responsibilities nor enforced compliance according to its authority,” the report states.
The report, presented Tuesday to the Legislative Audit Subcommittee, followed up on an internal audit of school construction in November 2022, which identified several similar issues, according to the report.
“This is very problematic, because we spend a lot of hours here in the Legislature talking about building code requirements,” Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, said Tuesday as the findings were shared.
As part of the audit, the Legislative Auditor General hired the company Building Code Solutions to independently review five Utah school building projects completed over the past few years to analyze how well districts complied with building codes and legal processes.
Compliance was inconsistent, according to the report, and inspectors identified multiple safety issues and building code violations.
Read the full report at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.