north royalton school board office

North Royalton Schools and Cuyahoga Heights School are the first in Cuyahoga County to join the state open checkbook that will show residents how the schools spend money with just a few clicks.

(File photo)

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- North Royalton Schools and Cuyahoga Heights School are the first in Cuyahoga County to join Ohio's open checkbook, which will show online exactly how taxpayer money is spent.

State Treasurer Josh Mandel in April invited townships, villages, cities, school boards, county governments library boards and other local entities to add their spending data to a searchable database, which already includes millions of state transactions.

"I believe the people of Cuyahoga County have a right to know how their tax money is being spent," Mandel said in a news release. "My vision is to create an army of citizen watchdogs who are empowered to hold public officials accountable."

School Board Member Barbara Ann Zindroski pushed for the school system to participate to further transparency for taxpayers. The district is the 9th school district statewide that has joined the program.

"It's all about disclosure," she said in an interview Thursday. "I just think it's another way for people to see where their money's going."

School Board Superintendent Greg Gurka said that the system will act as another tool for the district to communicate with the public.

"We want to make sure the community has information about everything that we do," he said. "We want to be open about everything."

The state database at Ohiocheckbook.com, which allows taxpayers to easily learn where their local tax dollars land, lists more than 112 million transactions by state agencies and boards from 2008 through June 2014. Since its launch in December of last year, the database has seen more than 249,000 total searches.