The Idaho Freedom Foundation has given the Blaine County School District a B grade in an assessment about "transparency" of the district's agreement with its teachers union.
The grade was based upon the ease of obtaining a copy of the agreement.
Statewide, grades ranging from A to F were awarded to 93 Idaho school districts in an assessment conducted by the foundation last fall. Complete results are available in a foundation report titled "Clear Grades: Ranking the Transparency of Idaho School District-Teacher Union Master Agreements."
Information from the report was released to the news media Sunday.
According to the report, 12 school districts received an A grade, 33 a B, four a C, 10 a D and 34 an F.
The foundation explained in a news release that an A grade was awarded if an electronic copy of a master agreement was posted online. B grades went to school districts that provided an electronic copy upon a telephone request. C grades went to districts that provided a "paper copy" if requested by telephone.
School districts that required a written request for a copy of a master agreement were awarded a D. School districts that ignored requests altogether were awarded an F.
"For having an electronic copy of its master agreements ready for the asking, we are happy to recognize the Blaine County School District in its transparency efforts," foundation Executive Director Wayne Hoffman stated in the news release. "However, we urge all of Idaho's school districts to follow Tom Luna's Department of Education Transparent Accountability Standards and post their master agreements online, making this critical budget information easily available to the public."
Luna is the Idaho superintendent of public instruction.
The Idaho Freedom Foundation describes itself as a "nonprofit educational and research organization that develops and advocates the principles of individual liberty, personal responsibility, private property rights, economic freedom and limited government."
The foundation's assessment of school-district transparency only looked at availability of master agreements and did not consider other factors such as the process used to arrive at agreements.
In Blaine County, the School District's discussions last year with the teachers union, called the Blaine County Education Association, were conducted in private, and the media and the public were only notified once an agreement was reached and ratified by the school board. No opportunity was provided for public review or comment.
Approval of the agreement was made during a "special" school board meeting on April 29. Advance notice of the meeting was not posted on the district's website and the media were not informed. Meeting notices were posted at the district office and a few other locations in Hailey, but made no mention that the school board would be considering the teachers' contract.
Since that time, the district has revised its policy on meeting announcements and now posts notices for special meetings on its website and provides advance notice to the news media.
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Tom Luna
