Our Mission
  • We are a non-profit, nonpartisan organization seeking TRUTH and ACCOUNTABILITY in all areas of Traverse City Area Public Schools.  
  • ​We exist to educate the public about their rights and to represent the interests of the greater TCAPS community that have been left out of the public process for too long.​
  • We promote transparency, good governance and fiscal responsibility on the TCAPS Board, Executive leadership, and related TCAPS organizations. 
  • ​Our specific mission includes the following:
1) Serve as a watch dog to ensure TCAPS operates in the best interests of the TCAPS community as a whole and in an open and public manner, as required by law;
 
2) Advocate for better community input and true consideration from all community stakeholders from students, parents, teachers, principals and business leaders;
 
3) Demand TCAPS fully comply with the spirit of state laws on disclosure and strive for best practices on transparent and open communications rather than minimum compliance with the letter of these laws. We seek to have TCAPS add informative details to (a) Board meeting agendas to provide proper notice of what is to be discussed and (b) to Board Meeting Minutes so that the public has an accurate understanding of what was discussed, as well as a clear understanding of the deliberations that took place (including Public Comments). We promote ensuring relevant information is not kept from the public ;
 
4) Return the second public comment to Board meetings so that the public has a timely opportunity to respond to board deliberations;
 
5) Require TCAPS Board to respond to all public comments, as other school boards do;
 ​
​
6) Reinstate meaningful ways to gather student, parent, teacher, principal, community stakeholder input prior to major decisions including adding back the District Advisory Committee (DAC);
 
7) Request meaningful participation in the new superintendent search, including representation from TCAPS Truth;
 
8) Build bridges between TCAPS leadership and the community to keep parents informed in a timely manner and to encourage greater community participation in a welcome setting;
 
9) Encourage TCAPS to embrace the spirit of Michigan “sunshine laws” which are designed to make government processes, including public school operations, to be open and accessible to the public;
 
10) Take legal action needed to ensure full compliance with the Open Meetings Act (OMA) and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  In an effort to hide from public process and scrutiny, TCAPS leaders have stated that they will not share the requested information unless by court order; it is time to go to court to expose TCAPS’ secrecy and violations of law, and restore the voice of the community to TCAPS.
Bill Smith and Kristie Bach
​Co-Chairs for TCAPS Transparency for Truth and Accountability.

Want to help?

Or simply send your personal checks with checks made out to:

TCAPS Truth
8830 Dawn Circle
Traverse City, MI 49686
 
Donations to this non-profit may be tax deductible pending 501(c) 3 (application pending). Donations will be spent on accomplishing the goals of this organization including FOIA charges, legal fees, website costs, social media and marketing. No donations will be used to pay officers or members of TCAPS Transparency for Truth & Accountability, as they are all volunteers to this causes. No donations will go to campaign or recall-related advocacy. ​
​