Granite School District has received questions regarding a recent Fox News article alleging inappropriate use of COVID-19 relief funds by the District for its participation in an educational conference held in Las Vegas, NV in the summer of 2022. We refute any impropriety for having our educators participate in this conference and share the following important facts:

• The funding in question was used to pay for hotel rooms for 123 educators from our district to attend a three-day professional educational convention hosted by Solution Tree in Las Vegas in 2022. Solution Tree is a highly reputable organization that  provides effective professional development for educators from across the nation. 
• In advance of getting approval for use of these funds in this way, the district conducted a comprehensive needs assessment and submitted our plan which was accepted by Utah State Board of Education(USBE). Our plan outlined that we would spend these funds on professional learning. 
• While the host hotel had some resort functions, our participants had standard rooms at the government rate. The average hotel cost for each participant was $220 per night.
• At the time, the closest available conference location was in Las Vegas, which was also the most cost-effective option being only several hours from Salt Lake City. Other locations offered at that time were much further away and would have resulted in more costs for participation. 
• To replicate the quantity and quality of speakers and resources provided at the conference in-house would be significantly more expensive than sending our educators to this nearby conference.
• This was a successful and beneficial conference for our educators. Due to positive feedback from attendees and continued high interest, we were able to convince Solution Tree to bring the conference to Salt Lake City in the summer of 2024, allowing more local school districts to participate and providing even more teachers access to this valuable instructional training.
• Prior to today, we have not been contacted by any members of the media with respect to this expenditure and refute that the district has not been transparent with our budgets and expenditures. The Fox News national story contains many factual errors and no one from their organization has ever contacted us to verify the facts of the report. 
• To be clear, there is no investigation into the use of these funds, which were approved by the Utah State Board of Education in full compliance with all applicable state and federal guidelines. Granite School District has NOT been contacted or questioned by any state or federal regulatory agency about the use of these funds. We first heard of this concern on social media. As such, we were surprised to be accused of fraud without having some contact from anyone to verify the legitimacy of the expense. 

We have and continue to be committed to providing high-quality professional development for our educators, and we’re confident that opportunities like the Solution Tree conference lead to better outcomes for Granite students.