While Dawn Schaller has to submit Freedom of Information Act requests and foot the copying bill for check register information, parents in other districts can get it online for free.
According to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Conservative, free-market thinktank based in Midland, 65 schools districts throughout the state, serving about a quarter of the student population, post spending online, including Holly Area Schools, Oxford Community Schools, and Waterford School District.
Asked this past June whether Clarkston Community Schools would follow suit, Superintendent Dr. Al Roberts and school board President Steve Hyer said information had to be presented in the right context.
“We need to make sure the information is easy to get to and in context,” Roberts said. “My concern is how the data doesn’t tell the whole story.”
One detail revealed by Clarkston’s check registers, uncovered during Schaller’s FOIA session: the district spent 640.65 British pounds, about $979, on Oct. 28, 2009, for office supplies for the new International Baccalareate program, including about 70 posters each costing four pounds, about $6.
This is part of $14,500 total budget for office supplies out of a total $598,101.78 budgeted for IB this school year.
This past June, Hyer said the school board would consider posting information online information during the summer, but discussions didn’t take place.
Mackinac Center posts links to all participating schools’ information online as part of its Show Michigan the Money project at www.showmichiganthemoney.org/9329.
? Phil Custodio