I want to bring to light several groups of parents and organizations that requested information from the District in the last several months under the Minnesota Data Practices Act (the state version of the Freedom of Information Act) and the difficulties the groups are encountering. First, who is requesting additional public information, such as email communication, from the District?
* A significant media outlet in the Twin Cities area.
* A concerned parent wanting to understand the proposal process.
* A law firm.
* A group of parents originally fighting the proposal, but now just wanting to understand what happened.
None of the above individuals or groups received the requested information. Here are some facts:
* The District compiled around 57,000 emails to turn over.
* The District appeared to be ready to turn over the 57,000 emails, but then hired a law firm, using tax payer money, to deal with the requests.
* Each of the groups made multiple requests over the last three months.
* At least one of the groups filed a complaint after working very hard to come to an agreement with the District.
The reason I am letting people know is because I believe our District should have nothing to hide and should not use tax payer money to fight the public for information that it is legally obligated to provide. In the last School Board Working Session, the Administration and School Board spoke about an open and public process. They do not appear to be very open at all.
After all, if the District has nothing to hide in this process, then there is absolutely nothing they should worry about and should be able to very rapidly comply.
The only sticking point is reviewing the emails for confidentiality and privilege. This is an important step, and one in which they are obligated by law to do. The District has certainly already done this for litigation they are currently involved with and has established processes. I work in the legal industry and know that reviewing for confidentiality and privilege is something very simple and rapidly done. Again, this should not be something that holds up the request or creates any sort of substantial burden.
The District's actions are clearly questionable. Why did the District bring in a law firm to deal with a simple request? What do they have to hide? Why are they spending additional tax-payer money on outside counsel?
I'm probably just missing something. So, let me know what you think.
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2 comments:
"The District's actions are clearly questionable. Why did the District bring in a law firm to deal with a simple request? What do they have to hide? Why are they spending additional tax-payer money on outside counsel?
I'm probably just missing something. So, let me know what you think."
I don't have the district answers for you, but as a parent and taxpayer in this district, I can tell you that to review 57,000 e-mails, and let's say an average of 5 minutes to review each e-mail, which would take around 285,000 minutes....which would require 2.28 paid staff for a full year to take time away from everything else, just to address this, at a time when we are worried about budget cuts, or better yet...166 teachers being cut. I don't mind attorney's being brought in to filter too, and would actually consider it unethical if they didn't. Anyone who has worked with administration or served on a board can tell you the hoards of confidential e-mail that pertains to student data and information regarding expulsions, suspensions, and current legal matters that students face, and are not for public knowledge. It would be in our districts best interest to make sure those e-mails are filtered by attorney's to prevent furture lawsuits by those individuals whose information would have been just "handed over".
As someone that works in the legal review process, they certainly already have a process for reviewing the emails. They should also be much faster than 1 email every 5 minutes. (If they are that slow, then I would question how much tax payer money they are wasting.)
Reviewing for confidentiality and privilege is very important as I previously acknowledged. However, it is also one of the fastest and least complex reviews. Review rates of 1 email every 20 to 30 seconds on average are reasonably attainable (many emails are immediately apparent and filtering techniques can isolate large numbers of documents that would need very minimal review and highlight documents that need very careful review). As a result it should only take around 11 weeks for one person (two people in 5 to 6 weeks). Furthermore, this document review is quite possibly being used for multiple cases and could possibly be something that is done on a consistent rolling basis.
From the information that I have received from the law firm, media outlets and parents requesting emails, the district has provided little to no information about the emails being forthcoming. The District could let any of the groups know: "We are working on it and will make it available in approximately X to Y weeks." Or, they could start providing the email on a rolling basis, meaning turn over X amount every week or so.
Instead, there is little to no communication, which raises questions in my mind.
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