Kirkpatrick, M.Ed., JOP, Kayla v. Salem, City of - Public Schools (SPR 20140666)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Shawn A. Williams Supervisor ofR ecords February 17, 2015 SPR14/666 Dr. Stephen Russell Superintendent Salem Public Schools 29 Highland A venue Salem, MA 01970 Dear Dr. Russell: I have received the petition ofKayla Kirkpatrick appealing the refusal of the Salem Public Schools (Schools) to waive the fees charged by the Schools in response to her public records request. G. L. c. 66, § 10(b); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(2). Specifically, Ms. Kirkpatrick requested copies of resume and salary information. On October 23, 2014, you provided a written estimate for the cost of search for and copying of the responsive records, and providing paper copies of the records. You estimated that it would entail between six and eight hours of time to search for and copy all the records at the hourly rate of the lowest paid staff member in the Schools' Human Resources Office where the records are held. The total cost to provide the records is two hundred twenty-five dollars. Ms. Kirkpatrick requested a waiver of fees associated with her request. In your second response on October 23, via email, you informed Ms. Kirkpatrick that the Schools would waive the cost of the first one hundred pages of copies. If the number of pages is more than one hundred, the Schools would charge the twenty cents per page allowed by the Public Records Law Access Regulations. A custodian of records may assess a reasonable fee for complying with a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1O (a); see also 950 C.M.R. 32.06(2) (where cost of complying with a request for public records is expected to exceed ten dollars ($10.00), custodian of records shall provide written good faith estimate). Absent specific statutory authority to the contrary, the fees to be charged for complying with requests for public records are established by the Public Records Access Regulations (Regulations). See 950 C.M.R. 32.06 (fees for public records). Under the Regulations, a custodian of records may assess a maximum fee of twenty cents ($.20) OneAshburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 · (617) 727-2832 ·Fax (617) 727-5914 www.sec.state.ma. us/ pre

Dr. Stephen Russell SPR14/666 Page Two February 17,2015 per page for a photocopy of a public record and fifty cents ($.50) per page for a computer generated copy of a public record. See 950 C.M.R. 32.06(1)(a). · I find these fees assessed are reasonable. The Public Records Law encourages that fees be waived by a records custodian and I note that the Schools have waived a portion of these fees. Accordingly, whereas the estimate provided is reasonable, is administrative appeal is closed. aw Supervisor of Records cc: Ms. Kayla Kirkpatrick