MPUSD gets often accused of not being "transparent"

yet it's one of the schools district with the most easily accessible public documents in Monterey County.

This is not meant to diss to any district, rather, is a "kudos" to the system MPUSD launched a few months ago -- maybe more than a year? The system allows for the archival and easy access over the Internet of most the documents the board of trustees receive at their meeting. It's the easiest way to find information, and if you are in the information business, it's really a blessing. It's run by an outside vendor, and it's found here.

Take a look, by contrast, at the system used by the Monterey County Office of Education. Except for their agenda and minutes, no other board document is easily accessible in their website, and the search button sometimes doesn't even work. Trustees receive their packets on paper, and if you want copies, somebody has to make you a physical one -- or scan it. Here's the link to the available documents.

Again, this is not meant as a diss. The public information department at MCOE is one of the friendliest, most responsive, most efficient in the county. Whenever I ask for documents or information, they usually provide them within a reasonable amount of time. It's their system that seems to be in need of an upgrade.

It occurs to me that, if the human resources system MPUSD is using right now is as efficient as the system used to post their agendas, I can see why they'd prefer it over a paper system like the one used at MCOE. And this entire reflection comes on the heels of what I see is a major dispute brewing among districts over what system to use to process their financial information -- we're taking about the tracking of millions of dollars here. Find more about that emerging disagreement here and stay tuned.