School Bond Transparency Report Card (2021)

Schools should be as transparent as possible with their bond program information and how they are allocating funds, so the purpose of this report is to evaluate whether San Diego schools with active bond programs are meeting the standards of transparency. This report is the most recent update of the SDTEF 2007 study, which created the San Diego County Taxpayers Association’s “Oversight Committee Best Practices,” last amended in May 2019, to appraise the transparency of schools’ Independent Citizen Oversight Committees (ICOCs). It should be noted that the scope of this study evaluates only the transparency and not the quality of bond programs, measuring the public existence of information needed for taxpayers to assess the overall performance of school bond programs. We do not evaluate the accountability of schools’ bond programs, and whether they are honestly listing their spending. We can only evaluate the extent to which they make their bond materials publicly available. The Transparency Report Card does not comment on the quality of material available or ease of access. Our recommendations at the end of this report, however, suggest how to improve these aspects of a district’s bond program.

The region-wide downward trend in scores continued from last year. Two years ago, the Association recommended to school districts best practices in bond program performance auditing.  Specifically, the Association recommended the boards, given the current status of their construction program, engage annually in setting the right scope of a performance audit, and that the school board trustees should do so in consultation with their independent citizens oversight committees.  Performance audits are required by state law and give the districts a chance to review how their construction programs are performing.

Many districts are not following these best practices on performance audits.  While it is likely that the challenges of delivering education to kids during the COVID19 public health pandemic made better performance auditing lower priority for districts, the Association still downgraded many of the districts on the report card.  School districts are receiving significant local property tax dollars to build facilities, and the boards’ oversight obligations become even more important when there is a crisis.