Friday, March 22, 2013
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: "Thoughtful individuals who seek 'truth' attempt to weigh and evaluate the expertise, professionalism and credibility of those making claims," says one Rockwood School District parent.
“Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” Marcus Aurelius Well, there are some facts, but then there is a LOT of opinion swirling around some parts of our community. Let’s start with some known facts, and then we’ll take a look at some opinions. Fact: Rockwood School District received a “Fair” rating in the February audit by the Missouri State Auditor team. Fact: Only two school districts, both much smaller than Rockwood, received higher ratings from the state auditing team. Fact: “Fair” is the most common school district audit rating. Now, let’s look at the opinions. Some opinions are worth more than others. Everything we hear or read is someone’s opinion, based on their …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Future construction projects and bond-related initiatives will be handled differently at Rockwood School District, pledge district officials. Anyone with Internet access can follow along, including the state auditors' staffers.
A five-step approach to responding to Missouri State Auditor's results was announced by Rockwood School District officials Thursday at the Board of Education meeting. Rockwood School District chief financial and legislative affairs officer Tim Rooney walked attendees of the board meeting through a lengthy plan that addresses recent state auditors' findings of the district. "The district fully expects to make significant progress with this action plan as we prepare for the auditors' return in 90 days," said Rooney. District representatives committed to the following five focal points post-audit: At the meeting, Rooney went through adjustments being made to the district's change order form, including that the reason for a proposed change …
Friday, February 1, 2013
Rockwood Stakeholders for Real Solutions representatives say a pending Missouri auditor’s report is expected to be on the mind of voters on April 2.
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Friday, February 1
Editor's Note: The following was provided as a news release from RS for RS, which is a self-described non-partisan group of taxpaying Rockwood School District citizens who seek transparency, fiscal responsibility and inclusion of parents and taxpayers in the decision-making process of the district. Rockwood Stakeholders for Real Solutions coalition citizens announced their concerns over the Rockwood School District Board of Education directors voting to put another ballot issue on the April 2 ballot. As an advocate group for taxpayers, parents, employees and students of the Rockwood School district, RS for RS feels the Board and district officials need to work on rebuilding the community’s trust and credibility, which was lost over the …
Friday, July 13, 2012
When Rockwood Stakeholders for Real Solutions members confirmed the Rockwood School District would be audited by state officials, they viewed it as a sign their efforts as concerned citizens had been successful...and they issued a press release.
There was never a "leak" to the press about the Rockwood School District audit, said Rockwood Stakeholder for Real Solutions (RS for RS) co-founder Eileen Tyrrell, after Thursday night's comments made at the Rockwood School District Board of Education meeting. See related article from Friday morning: Missouri Auditors Now Call Rockwood Evaluation a 'Performance Audit' She said a RS for RS representative called the Missouri State Auditor's Office at the end of January to inquire if the Rockwood district had made the 2012 audit list. "The answer was yes," she emailed Patch Friday morning. "We, in turn, put out a press release! The Auditors' Office DID NOT leak it to the press. "RS for RS 'informed' the press." Editor's Note: Content of that…
Two representatives from the Missouri State Auditors' Office attended the Rockwood School District Board of Education meeting Thursday to introduce themselves and discuss initial parameters of their project about the district.
Other than switching the name of the previously deemed "compliance audit" to "performance audit," not many new details were revealed Thursday evening at the Rockwood School District Board of Education meeting about the upcoming Missouri State Audit of the district. For background, read previous Patch articles about the audit: Missouri senior auditor Carl Zilch said the Rockwood project also is not a petition audit, and thus would be paid for from state funding, not by the Rockwood District. "We don't know the cost of this audit yet. We will start in-field work on Monday," he said. "We do know it will take several months and that the report won’t come out until next year." Zilch described the process as including two exit conferences: one …
Larry Lazar
2:04 pm on Monday, April 1, 2013
The question that we should be asking ourselves is "What kind of community are we?" Do we understand that we are privileged to be in one of the very best school districts in the country? Do we consider our schools to be the heart and lifeblood of our community and do we support them accordingly? Do we understand that the very best investment we can make is to educate all of the children in our … more ›