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Revised (Nov 18 2008)
Transparency
Demands for transparency have two dimensions. People want to know what is going on and that decisions are made without secrecy.
All board dealings, with the exception of confidential matters, should be made public. Boards of education, individual trustees and senior officials have to deal with business and personnel matters, negotiations and sensitive personal issues of students, staff and parents. Some information may be picked up by the media, but details must be restricted to the private domain. See: Section 2—The Key Work, How the work is done, Board of education meetings.
Transparency requires educating the public, particularly education partners, about how the board does its business and dispelling suspicions of secrecy and exclusion. What information is and isn’t public, however, and the process of accessing it, needs to be clearly defined and publicized. It is important that trustees, officials and administrators have a common understanding of this process and respond to public questions consistently.
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School trustees
