School transparency checklist
From Sunshine Review
Sunshine Review has a general transparency checklist for School district websites. Sunshine Review also has an evaluation of Pennsylvania school district websites .
The following are items to lookout for the state of Pennsylvania.
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School Transparency Checklist
An ideal school transparency checklist would meet at least two criteria: inclusion of relevant information and interpretation of data whose meaning or importance is not self-evident. Bonus points might be awarded for trend data (e.g., on tax increases in recent years) or benchmarks and cross-district patterns (e.g., tax and salary data for nearby districts or test scores from districts with similar demographics.
Financial transparency
Are the following documents available online and readable with widely available software?
Financial documents
- Annual budget
- Check registers
- Property tax rates (millage)
- Income or other tax rates
Process-related materials
- Scheduled board meetings (including committees)
- Board meeting agendas (including committees)
- Minutes of meetings
- Board policies
- Board contact data
- Administration contact data
Key budget components
- Superintendent salary
- Salary schedule, teachers
- Union contract(s)
- Formal board and union proposals in current negotiations
Academic performance documents
- District "Report Card"
- Test scores
- Dropout/graduation rates
