This is a report for San Diego County. It is intended for comparison purposes. Both the Mt. SAC CCD and the Walnut Valley USD claim they are among the best in the nation. Those claims are based on criteria that are, generally, attributable to involved parents and motivated students. This report relates only to transparency with respect to oversight of general obligation bonds.
San Diego Taxpayers Educational Foundation 707 Broadway, Suite 905 | San Diego, CA 92101 | T: 619-234-6423 | F: 619-234-7403 School Bond Transparency In San Diego County SUMMARY REPORT June 2015
The San Diego Taxpayers Educational Foundation (SDTEF) conducts research on issues relevant to taxpayers with a primary focus on finance and transparency. As school districts receive bond financing, taxpayers should be able to quickly determine if district officials are meeting their promises to keep the public at-large informed of project progress. The ease of access to this information varies across districts. This report is intended to provide tools for San Diego County school districts to use in the ongoing process of improving transparency with respect to school facilities bond programs.
The Transparency Scorecard summarizes the findings of this study by providing an accounting of information made available by school districts. The Transparency Scorecard only makes note of the existence of the criteria examined and does not comment on the quality of the material available.
While there are many criteria that go into making a school facilities bond program effective, the scope of this study focuses solely on transparency – the accessibility of information that makes it possible for taxpayers to assess the performance of school facility bond programs. This study is the most recent update of the SDTEF 2007 School Bond Transparency study. The original study was a comprehensive look at the transparency of school facility bond program's Independent Citizen Oversight Committees (ICOC). From this original study, SDTEF created the "Oversight Committee Best Practices," to appraise the transparency of ICOCs. Since 2013, SDTEF has released annual transparency scorecards evaluating school districts based on these practices.
Districts are required to provide annual audits on financial matters as well as program performance and Annual Reports from each bond's Oversight Committee. One notable finding of this year's scorecard is the lack of consistency with regards to Annual Reporting practices. For interested taxpayers in a school district, the Annual Report should be an obvious first option to learn more about current events in the bond program. With some Annual Reports more than two years old, some districts are failing to provide useful public records.
The "2014 Audit Information Provision" section of the 2015 SDTEF Scorecard is based on information available in a district's 2014 audit. Districts that did not have current audit information available on their webpage did not receive credit for these measures.
Despite lacking reporting information for some, many districts are meeting and exceeding these transparency standards. Once the minimum standards for transparency have been met, some districts have innovated to provide more user-friendly access to important project information. Staff was especially impressed with the San Diego Community College District ICOC's "Rainbow Report," a detailed and easy to follow budgetary breakdown of each individual project receiving bond monies.
A commonly-missed criterion was the inclusion of contact information for the members of the Oversight Committee. While many districts provide information for interested parties to contact district staff, there is a noted lack in ability to interact with individual committee members. The ability of district residents to contact these independent oversight members provides an important avenue for exchanging concerns and information.
These criteria are meant to represent a minimum for a school bond to be considered transparent by reasonable standards. Regular updating of public documents in an easily accessible format should not be a daunting undertaking. Taxpayers in each school district deserve to know how officials are utilizing their bond dollars and finding this information should be a quick process.
Description of Criteria WEBSITE INFORMATION PROVISION2015 SDTEF School Bond Transparency Scorecard GCCCD Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District SUHSD Sweetwater Union High School District SDCCD San Diego Community College Disctrict SMUSD San Marcos Unified School District SDUSD San Diego Unified School District SBUSD South Bay Union School District SDUHSD San Dieguito Union High School District PCCD Palomar Community College District CVUSD Cajon Valley Union School District LMSVSD La Mesa - Spring Valley School District CVESD Chula Vista Elementary School District EUSD Encinitas Union School District SSD Santee School District CUSD Carlsbad Unified School District GUHSD Grossmont Union High School District OUSD Oceanside Unified School District SWCCD Southwestern Community College District JUHSD Julian Union High School District LGSD Lemon Grove School District LUSD Lakeside Union School District DSD Dehesa School District Website Information Provison Committee Bylaws v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Oversight Committee List and Contact Info v v v v v Meeting Minutes/Agendas v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Additional Meeting Material v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Archive of Annual Reports v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Archive of Performance Audits v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Archive of Financial Audits v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Detailed Project List v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Project Descriptions v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Project Progress v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Bond Background Information v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Full Oversight Committee v v v v v v v v v v v v v Number of Vacancies - - - - 1 2 - 1 - - - 1 1 2 - 1 1 2014 Annual Report Information Provision 2014 Annual Report Available v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Budget Overview v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Program Status Updates v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Detailed Discussion of Projects v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Project Progress Report v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v v 2014 Audit Information Provision 2014 Financial Audits v v v v v v v v v v v v v v 2014 Performance Audit v v v v v v v v v v v v v Basic Financial Information v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Expenditures Itemized by Project/ Site v v v v v v v v v v v v Prop 39 Required Audit Findings v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Additional Recommendations Listed v v v v v v v v v Audits Performed by Third Party v v v v v v v v v v v v v v Performance Audits meet SDCTA Standards v v v v v v v v v v v v v Points out of 25 24 24 24 24 23 23 23 23 21 20 20 19 18 16 15 12 10 9 7 4 2 Transparency Grade 96% 96% 96% 96% 92% 92% 92% 92% 84% 80% 80% 76% 72% 64% 60% 48% 40% 36% 28% 16% 8% Change Since Previous Scorecard - - + + - + + + + * + + - - - - - + * * * *Not graded in previous scorecard
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