Citizens Oversight of Public School Construction Programs: In Search of Promising Practices

This paper provides information on the advantages associated with having a Citizen Oversight Committee as well as lessons and promising practices on how to develop and implement a committee. Ten districts with citizen oversight committees in place were interviewed to determine promising practices that are most effective in fulfilling the responsibilities and achieving the advantages of an oversight committee. These districts include Cleveland, Ohio; Jefferson County, Colorado; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento and Salinas, California; San Antonio, Texas; Miami-Dade, Florida; and Wichita, Kansas. The report is not intended to judge the effectiveness of the individual oversight committees. Instead, information on their successes and failures was gathered and analyzed so that others considering establishing committees can benefit from their achievements and learn from their mistakes.