Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I think that improving the PLSD web site could contribute significantly to restoring the credibility of the school board and PLSD administration. However, no one seems to realize how much improvement will be required.

There has been talk for years, for example, about making basic financial and enrollment information available on the web site. The PLSD's annual CAFR reports, for example, which include tremendous amounts of such data, and also provide bases for historical comparison, could easily be made accessible from the web site. For some reason, however, despite a lot of talk about doing so, no one has ever done this.

The PLSD also has talked for years about making minutes of school board meetings, and school board policies (there are hundreds of them), available on the web site. Again, no progress. In fact, even meeting dates have not been kept current. One can find out when the board met in 2005, but not when it will meet in 2006.

The PLSD Treasurer prepares monthly summarizes of where the PLSD year-to-date expenditures stand in relation to the PLSD budget. Those could be posted on the web site. Again, for some reason they are not. Nor is the PLSD's operating budget.

The web site could include a link to the Fairfield County Treasurer's TAX FAQs, which includes the millage of the PLSD and every other school district in the county. Again, nothing of the sort has ever been done or, to my knowledge, even considered.

The PLSD web site provides great opportunities for voter communication and voter information. Unfortunately, those opportunities, so far, have been wasted. It's time that they were used.
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By Yosemite Pam

Discussed on Monday

Pam -

Some of the same things you talk about were discussed on Monday night.

Lisa Reade spoke of meeting with Walt P??? the technology director & they had interviewed two companies but wanted to look at a couple more before bringing before the full board. She wants to update the site and talked about something that used a database & was more consistant across buildings and easier to navigate. Some of the info you want is on the website but hard to get to:

2006 Meeting Schedule:
http://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/ldrship/BOE/boesched.html

Board Minutes:
http://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/ldrship/BOE/Minutes/BoardMeetingMinutesIndex.html

(I understand here they have to be approved by the Board to be posted - a lot were approved on Monday so this should become more current soon)

Board Policy:
http://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/ldrship/BOE/Policy/IndextoProceduresManual.html

Financial Info:
http://www.pickerington.k12.oh.us/ldrship/treasurer/treasurer.html

(I called and asked about LY comparisons and understand they just got them from ODE & will be updating this page)

You should email features you'd be interested in seeing - I know that Mrs. Reade said they were talking to lots of people to make sure what they moved to could accomodate the needs the district has - student access to gradebooks is coming, I know I was excited to hear about that !!!

By Violet Mom