Former County Commissioner Seeks Increased Transparency In Jefferson County School District

Image Credit: Jefferson County Post

The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –

In a letter to the Mayor and Commissioners of Jefferson County, Tennessee, a concerned citizen asked that information that is frequently requested through Open Records be automatically uploaded to the school district’s website for public viewing.

David Seal, who is currently a columnist for the Jefferson County Post and a community activist, is a retired Technical Education teacher and County Commissioner for Jefferson County.  

In his letter, Seal said, “The Jefferson County School Board continues the diabolical practice of ‘tracking’ civic-minded citizens who exercise their right to request public records. They not only track requestors, they make a list of each citizen requestor by name, date, and topic and enter said list into the official board meeting record. As I stated in a recent county commission meeting, I believe the school board wishes to dissuade records requests by using this intimidating process. I also expect that frequent records requestors will be asked to cease and desist from future requests.”

Seal states that posting frequently requested documents on the school district website would eliminate the need for school personnel to spend time and energy processing requests, eliminate exorbitant costs to citizen records requestors, provide proper transparency, and bring increased credibility to the school board and county government.

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Seal states that a minimum of the following should be made available on the the Jefferson County Schools district website:

• Contracts with in-service providers

• Contracts with professional development providers

• All Documents Pertaining to Advisory Committee Meetings

• Carl Perkins Vocational Grant Application and List of Disbursements by Receipt

• All Grant Applications and List of Disbursements by Receipt

• All Documents Related to School Building Projects

• All Correspondence Between School Officials and Architects

• All Correspondence Between School Officials and Construction Managers

• All Documents Related to Capital Improvements and Disbursements

• Current (JCS) School System Enrollment Numbers by School

• Private School, Adult High School, Home School, and All Other Non-Public Enrollment 

• Gate Receipts for Athletic Events (Aggregate Amounts)

• Admission Charges for All Events at the JCHS Performing Arts Center (Aggregate Amounts) 

• Contracts with Providers of Outdoor Advertising and Public Relations Services

• Text of All Surveys Given to School Staff

• Text of All Surveys Given to Students

• Examples of all Rubrics, and Written Evaluation Instruments Used for School Personnel

• School Board Meeting Packets

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Seal states that it takes just a few seconds to upload documents to Cloud services for sharing and addresses the letter recipients by stating, “DO NOT LET ANYONE make you believe that uploading (and posting) documents would be cumbersome, costly, or time consuming.

In the letter, Seal asks that the county commission make the recommendation of uploading the above-mentioned documents during the next budget appropriation process.  

“I am not asking you to exceed your authority to mandate anything. I am asking you to merely request that certain public documents be posted on a website,” Seal concludes.

About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative  ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career.  Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others.  He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History.  Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com

One thought on “Former County Commissioner Seeks Increased Transparency In Jefferson County School District

  • July 25, 2022 at 5:00 pm
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    Could not agree more with this!
    It should ALL be transparent as WE THE PEOPLE pay fir these public schools with our tax dollars!
    NO LISTS should be made to “doxx” parents or community members who want to see how “our” money is being spent & what is going on in out Tennessee schools!
    This should be a requirement!

    Reply

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