1. (1) The State Board of Education consists of individuals who serve part-time and must necessarily earn their living in other jobs and professions.
2. (2) It is necessary to reconcile the functions of board members who have private interests with the maintenance of high ethical standards and public confidence.
3. (3) In seeking to balance these interests, it is necessary to avoid controls that might be so strict that they discourage capable and honorable persons from seeking election to the board.
4. (4) It is recognized that public confidence in the board should be promoted and that competent members should serve on the board even though most have private interests of various types.
5. (5) It is also recognized that an elected board member is in a different position in doing business with the state and its political subdivisions than a public servant whose chief source of livelihood is derived from public funds.

6. (6) As used in this part:

   1. (a) "Board" means the State Board of Education.
   2. (b) "Board leadership" means the chair and vice chair of the State Board of Education.
   3. (c) "Board member" means an individual who is elected to serve as a member of the State Board of Education.
   4. (d) "Commission" means the independent ethics commission established under Section 53E-3-1303.
   5. (e) "Complainant" means an individual who files an ethics complaint under this part.
   6. (f) "Complaint" means an ethics complaint filed under Section 53E-3-1305.
   7. (g) "Conflict of interest" means the same as that term is defined in Section 20A-11-1602.
   8. (h) "Final decision or order" means a decision or order that determines the rights of the parties and concerns which appellate remedies have been exhausted or that the time for appeal has expired.
   9. (i) "Person" includes an individual, a partnership, an association, an organization, a company, and a body politic and corporate, or a lobbyist, but does not include an individual or entity that provides the board member's primary source of income.
   10. (j) "Respondent" means a board member against whom an ethics complaint is filed.

Enacted by Chapter 181, 2026 General Session