{"id":2925,"date":"2023-05-17T20:06:46","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T20:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2925"},"modified":"2023-05-17T20:14:50","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T20:14:50","slug":"sun-prairie-school-district-is-illegally-charging-11000-to-hide-public-records-will-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=2925","title":{"rendered":"Sun Prairie School District is \u2018Illegally Charging\u2019 $11,000 to Hide Public Records, WILL Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/sun-prairie-school-district-transgender\/<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sun Prairie School District is \u201cillegally charging exorbitant fees\u201d to hide public records regarding the incident in which \u201can adult biological male showered naked with four freshman girls,\u201d the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL) says.<\/p>\n

After WILL filed a public records request for the school\u2019s locker room policy and other related documents, the district responded by demanding $11,000.<\/p>\n

:While schools may charge some small fees known as \u2018location costs\u2019 (and many schools waive these fees), the district is illegally charging exorbitant fees as a way to hide public records,\u201d WILL said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe law demands more, and the district\u2019s embrace of secrecy is an embarrassment. Students, parents, and taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability,\u201d WILL Deputy Counsel, Dan Lennington, said.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin Right Now obtained the district\u2019s letter to WILL.<\/p>\n

The letter to WILL was written by Lori M. Lubinsky of Axley Brynelson, LLP. On April 19, 2023, WILL asked for the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cA copy of all emails, texts, messages, voicemails, or other communications sent or received by Superintendent Brad Saron, EHS Principal Renee Coleman, EHS Assistant Principal Heidi Walter, EHS Assistant Principal Christine Deutscher, or Director of Student Policy and School Operations Nick Reichhoff between March 3, 2023, and the date of this request, related to the incident described above. Please redact any personally identifiable information as required by law.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"sun<\/p>\n

The district responded that some records would be denied because they are pupil records. In other cases, they included a chart and said it \u201cincludes the hourly rate plus benefits for these employees who will need to search the requested records, as well as the estimated amount of time it will take to locate records responsive to your request.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cA copy of all emails, texts, messages, voicemails, or other communications sent or received any EHS teacher or counselor between March 3, 2023, and the date of this request, related to the incident described above. Please redact any personally identifiable information as required by law.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The district responded,<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect to any records responsive to this request that do not meet the definition of a pupil record under Wis. Stat. \u00a7 119.125, to locate records responsive to this request, the District\u2019s IT staff will need to search the individual email accounts of all certified staff at EHS. IT estimates it will take 30 minutes per staff member to run the searches of these individual email accounts for any responsive emails. There are 118 certified staff at EHS, so the estimated time to search for responsive emails is 59 hours. IT\u2019s hourly rate is $83.36, and so the total estimated location cost of the email search alone is $4,918.24. In addition, those emails would then need to be reviewed to locate responsive emails. That review would be conducted by an assistant whose hourly rate is $45.88.<\/p>\n

While it is difficult to estimate the time it will take to review the emails to locate responsive records, our best guess is that it will take about 10 hours to review the emails. The estimated location costs for that review is $458.80. In total, the estimated location cost for emails (and only emails) responsive to this request is $5,377.04. Accordingly, the District requires prepayment from you in the amount of $5,377.04 for the estimated location costs for emails responsive to this request pursuant to Wis. Stat. \u00a7 19.35(3)(c). Until this estimate is paid, the District will not proceed to locate any responsive records to this request.<\/p>\n

In addition, your request for texts, messages, voicemails and other communications for all certified staff at EHS would require all 118 employees to search to locate any responsive documents. This is an overly broad request, but we are willing to have this search conducted. We estimate, however, that the location costs of performing this search will exceed $5,000.00. Until this estimate is paid, the District will not proceed to locate any responsive records to this request.<\/p>\n

\u201cA copy of any meeting invitations or calendar invitations reflecting any meetings occurring on March 3, 2023, or thereafter, related to the incident described above.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district responded: \u201cYour request for meeting invitations or calendar invites with pupils and\/or parents of pupils seeks documents that the District is prohibited from disclosing pursuant to Wisconsin\u2019s Pupil Records Statute, Wis. Stat. \u00a7 119.125. That statute defines a pupil record as \u201crecords relating to individual pupils maintained by a school. . . .\u201d To the extent any records that fall within your request fall within the definition of a pupil record, the District is prohibited by law from providing those records to you. With respect to non-pupil records, no responsive documents exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA copy of the restroom and locker room guidance that was in effect on March 3, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district responded: \u201cThe District\u2019s Guidelines to Support Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender- Expansive Students can be found on the following District website<\/a>. Also, the District\u2019s policy addressing locker rooms can be found here<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAll records indicating the date on which SPASD\u2019s \u2018Restroom and Locker Room Accessibility Guidance\u2019 was created.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district responded, \u201cSee Response to Request 4. In addition, the specific document you attached to your letter dated April 19, 2023, is an excerpt from the Guidelines which except was created after the incident of March 3, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA copy of any locker room privacy policy posted in the locker rooms at EHS.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district responded: \u201cAttached is a picture of the posting you requested.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA copy of SPASD\u2019s organizational chart or other document reflecting the name and title of SPASD\u2019s Title IX coordinator.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district responded, \u201cThe District\u2019s organizational chart, which is attached, does not identify the SPASD\u2019s Title IX Coordinator. That information is located on the District\u2019s website<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA copy of any text messages, social media messages, emails, or other communications, whether on official District accounts or not, sent to or received by any member of the SPASD Board of Education related to the incident from March 3, 2023 to the date of this request.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district responded, \u201cThe only responsive document is attached, which is your email and letter dated April 19, 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/sun-prairie-school-district-transgender\/ The Sun Prairie School District is \u201cillegally charging exorbitant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-right-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2928,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2925\/revisions\/2928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}