Take a Look at Your District’s Check Register!

District check registers are required to be posted online, not later than 45 days after a month’s end.  This was implemented in September 2009 by the ALSDE (remember…that’s the Alabama State Department of Education…we’re getting good at remembering the acronyms, right?)

These check registers are not a complete list of all monies spent by a district, and they don’t include salary amounts of district or school personnel.  Nor do they include monies spent directly by schools.

They do give you an idea of how state, federal, and local monies are spent on a regular basis, though.

Here’s a video tutorial the ASC put together to walk you through the process of finding your district’s register, what it looks like, what it tells you and what it doesn’t tell you:

Take a look at your district’s check register.  Take a look at the category assigned to the check.  Considering our school district are spending our money, we ought to have a better understanding of on what they’re spending it.

If you have questions about what those checks are for, ask your district’s communications person or public information officer.  If they don’t have the answer, they should know who does and should direct you to that person.

School district budget hearings are coming up, and those are great places to ask questions about how monies are spent, if your district is one who allows public comment during the hearing….stay tuned for more information about how you can engage in your district’s budget hearings.