District Working to Increase Financial Transparency with New Project
The Tahoma School District’s (TSD) Public Relations Director demoed a new project meant to increase financial transparency during the 8 Mar 2022 school board meeting. This project involves a “Budget 101” webpage meant for community members that gives an easy-to-digest birdseye view of the district’s budget process and financial data. While financial data is currently available to anyone who requests it, most community members don’t know where to obtain the data. Moreover, the data is presented in confusing spreadsheets with unknown acronyms that can discourage engagement.
To remedy this issue, the district is working to roll out a webpage that will make this data much more comprehensible. The webpage is being built as a living document that will be updated constantly, giving citizens a live look of the budget. The page also contains broken down, easy-to-read graphs and explanations of how and why money is being used a certain way.
Most of the funding for the district is non-discretionary and must be used as designed. This often leaves very little room for budget flexibility, making fiscal responsibility and awareness that much more important. Tahoma Parents commends the district for this effort and we are excited to see the final product.
We will be sure to announce and link to the district's new “Budget 101” page when it becomes available.
Watch the presentation courtesy of the Tahoma Education Advocates below
