Westerville City Schools has received the highest rating in Auditor of State Keith Faber’s new approach to monitoring transparency in government and measuring compliance to Ohio’s open records laws.
The Star Rating System (StaRS), which was launched last year, encourages public entities to be more open and transparent to those they serve by implementing identified best practices.
According to the Ohio Auditor, “The StaRS will reflect a rating for each public office, i.e. a public entity such as a county, for every audit period ending December 31, 2019 or after, which not only measures compliance with Sunshine Laws, but also encourages public entities to be more open and transparent with the citizens they serve through implementation of identified best practices.”
In its FY 2020 audit, the district received four stars, the highest achievement for meeting the requirements of the law and having implemented all of the recommended best practices.
The areas measured are:
- Method to track public records requests
- Standard request forms
- Public records request acknowledgment
- Public records custodian identified and trained
- Prompt certified public records training
- Online presence – upcoming events and office operations
- Online presence – official documents
