Ronald Alexander v. Wellesley, Town of - Public Schools (SPR 20171080)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records August 24,2017 SPRl711080 Judith Belliveau Assistant SuperintendentIRecords Access Officer Town of Wellesley Public Schools 40 Kingsbury Street Wellesley, MA 0248 1 Dear Ms. Belliveau: I have received the petition of Ronald Alexander appealing the response of the Town of Wellesley Public Schools (School) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, 5 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Initially, on May 11,2017, Mr. Alexander requested "to inspect all raw responses" to an identified June 17,2016 survey distributed by the School. After a series of correspondence between Mr. Alexander and the School, on May 26,2017, he modified his request. The School ultimately provided a fee estimate and upon payment from Mr. Alexander, two copies of the responsive records were sent to him with redactions. One copy was sent to Mr. Alexander in a PDF format dated June 16,2017 and the other was in an Excel format dated July 18,2017. In his petition to this office, Mr. Alexander specifically objected to the redactions made to the July 1g th version. In redacting the responsive records the School claimed Exemptions (a) and (c) of the Public Records Law. G. L. c. 4, 5 7( 26)( 4,( 4. Current appeal Mr. Alexander, in objecting to the redactions made to the records sent to him by the School on July 18 th,c ontended that there was no explanation accompanying the School's July 1g thr esponse. Attorney Ivria Glass Fried, who serves as the School's counsel in this matter, informed this office that when the School provided the first set of responsive records on June 16 th,a lthough they were redacted, the redactions were specifically explained in a letter that was attached and sent along to him. This letter was once again included along with the School's July 1g t" provision of the same redacted records, with only the format of the records having been altered from PDF to Excel. Additionally, in an email sent to Mr. Alexander on the same day, the School explained to him that all redactions made in the excel version (of responsive records) " One Ashburton Place, Room 171 9, Boston, Massachusetts 02 108 (6 17) 727-2832. Fax: (6 17) 727-59 14 sec.state.ma.us/pre pre@sec.state.ma.us

Judith Belliveau Page 2 August 24,20 17 mirror the redactions made in the PDF version of the same document provided to you on June 16 and again on June 26. No additional redactions have been made to the excel document." Given that Mr. Alexander's appeal was based on a claim of lack of specificity provided by the School for the redactions to the records and the School demonstrated it provided an explanation of the redactions to Mr. Alexander, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. Mr. Alexander may appeal the substantive nature of the School's June 16 thr esponse within ninety (90) days. 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Ronald Alexander