“Oklahomans for Responsible Government” has cited Broken Arrow Public Schools as one of 15 Oklahoma School Districts for having a website that best promotes transparency for taxpayers.

Oklahomans for Responsible Government looked at the more than 530 public school districts in Oklahoma to see if they have a website and if so, “whether the information provided there meets a certain level of transparency.”

The criteria the group used to determine if a school district’s website was in fact transparent for taxpayers included whether or not the website had information in the following ten categories:  budget, meetings, elected officials, administrative officials, public records, contracts, taxes, background checks, academics, and audits.

Oklahomans for Responsible Government found the BAPS website (www.baschools.org) to be among the 15 best at meeting its goals for transparency.  School Districts recognized included BA, Bartlesville, Deer Creek, Guthrie, Jenks, Midwest City-Del City, Moore, Oklahoma City, Owasso, Putnam City, Sand Springs, Stillwater, Tulsa, Union, and Vici.

“Our School Board and I and the staff of this district work very hard to promote transparency in our operations and appreciate this recognition,” Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Gary Gerber said.  “We also recognize that we can always improve and will use these findings to look at ways where we can do even better in communicating in an open and transparent manner with our parents, patrons, and taxpayers.”

The complete findings of the Oklahomans for Responsible Government survey of school districts’ websites are available at www.ofrg.org.