Last week I introduced you to my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow‘s new 3-page report on “What Should School District Financial Transparency Looks Like?” Highlighted prominently in the paper and in Ben’s testimony last week before Colorado’s House Education Committee was the remarkable work of Jefferson County Public Schools — Colorado’s largest school district — in creating perhaps the best online financial transparency database of any school district in the nation.

This week Ben interviewed Lorie Gillis, the chief financial officer of Jeffco Public Schools, for a 12-minute iVoices podcast. Follow this link or click on the play button below to listen:

Gillis explains what prompted the district to take action, as well as the basic features of the site. I encourage you to try it out (especially if you live in Jefferson County), create an expenditure search of your own, and share your comments with the district. They have expressed interest in continuing to improve the transparency database based on user feedback.

Other Colorado school districts I know of that have made progress in the area of expenditure-level financial transparency:

• Colorado Springs 11
• Greeley-Evans 6
• Adams 50 (Westminster)
• Durango 9-R
• Falcon 49

And from what I understand there are more to come, too. Still, so far, none is as detailed, helpful and user-friendly as what Jefferson County Public Schools has done. Kudos to Jeffco!