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Citizens deserve the right to know the inner- workings of their government, and public institutions; which includes our school districts. This is an important feature of school and community relations because school boards are elected locally to ensure that the schools in that community are governed and operated properly both fiscally and academically. This is why it is admirable that the State of Arkansas has determined that each school district within that state should ensure that each district website include;
“(A) Minutes of regular and special meetings of the school board;
(B) The budget for the ensuing year;
(C) Financial breakdown of monthly expenses of the district;
(D) Salary schedule for all employees;
(E) The school district’s yearly audit; and
(F) The Annual Statistical Report.” –
Furthermore, since school districts rely on public funding, school boards and districts should be accountable to the public for how they spend district funds, and regularly publish these item for the public to access.
I juxtapose my findings from Arkansas with those in my local community in Florence, South Carolina, and found that we also have state regulations that govern what information must be transparent to the community. This information can be found in the South Carolina Education Finance Act of 1977; which requires school districts to compile a transparency report that features; school board minutes, district financial statements, and district expenditures (South Carolina Education Finance, 2014). According to my school district website, this report is featured for the public to easily access, and obtain a copy for their review.
With this in mind, I interviewed the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction, the director of t...

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...nce of having a good relationship between the school and the community, and that transparency is the best way to articulate that message. Therefore, I believe that my school district is following in the sprite of the Arkansas State Law, and South Carolina law being as visible to the community as possible. However, there are areas that they surely can improve in such as using technology to better communicate with parents and community, and getting more of the public involved in surveys and feedback. I believe that the district should make their own website and individual school websites more user friendly to allow them to better understand what information is available. Finally, I believe that it might be important for the district to invest in live stream board meetings so that the community can better see and hear the message that the school board is displaying.

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