Maura Hughes v. Manchester Essex Regional School District (SPR 20180344)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords March 30, 2018 SPRlS/344 Pam Beaudoin Superintendent Manchester Essex Regional School District 36 Lincoln Street Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA 01944 Dear Ms. Beaudoin: I have received the petition of Maura Hughes appealing the response of the Manchester Essex Regional School District (School) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 1 OA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Ms. Hughes indicated her dissatisfaction with the fees assessed for the request of her son's school records and requested a fee waiver from the School. Fee estimates A municipality may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record except those records that are freely available for public inspection. G. L. c. 66, § lO(d). The fees must reflect the actual cost of complying with a particular request. Id. A maximum fee of five cents ($.05) per page may be assessed for black and white copies for both single and double-sided copies of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d )(i). Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first two hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested unless the municipality has 20,000 people or less. G. L. c. 66, § 10( d)(iii). Where appropriate, municipalities may include as part of the fee an hourly rate equal to or less than the hourly rate attributed to the lowest paid employee who has the necessary skill required to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce a record requested, but the fee shall not be more than $25 per hour. Id. However, municipalities may charge more than $25 per hour if such rate is approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). A fee shall not be assessed for time spent segregating or redacting records unless such segregation or redaction is required by law or approved by the Supervisor of Records under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(iii); 950 CMR 32.06(4). One Ashburton Place, Room 1719, Boston, Massachusetts 02108 • (617) 727-2832• Fax: (617) 727-5914 sec.state.ma.us/pre• pre@sec.state.ma.us

Ms. Pam Beaudoin SPR18/344 Page 2 March 30, 2018 Current Appeal Ms. Hughes sent an email to this office on March 16, 2018 with concerns about being charged for records regarding her son who attended the School. In a letter dated March 15, 2018, Ms. Hughes affirmed that a letter sent from the School's attorney told them the documents would be produced to them "upon our remittance of $313.90." Ms. Hughes claims that they were charged for their son's records when they should not have been. Ms. Hughes also claims that the School gave conflicting responses on why they were not provided their son's records without a fee. The School states in the January 8, 2018 fee estimate letter that "[o ]n December 22, 2017, Allison Collins asked you to clarify the documentation you are requesting with further specificity. To date, Ms. Collins has not received a response from you clarifying your request." With no clarification provided, the School searched for records referencing the identified student which lead to identifying 2,000 pages of emails. The School fee estimate states "it spent ten hours segregating the public records from the approximately 2,000 pages of records identified in the district's search for records. Redacting the 278 pages identified as student records took approximately two (2) hours. Additionally, the district is charging five cents per page for the 278 pages. Accordingly, the requested segregated and redacted emails which are subject to public disclosure under the applicable law will be produced to you upon your remittance of $313.90." The School does not clearly explain what type of documents are being redacted as required by the Public Records Law. See G. L. c. 66, § lO(d)(i). The School describes the documents as "referencing or referring to [the identified student] and your family ... in any way." It is not clear what documents were produced as a result of such a search. Based upon Ms. Hughes' March 15th letter and the School's January 8th fee estimate, having not received specificity from Ms. Hughes for the records search, this office encourages both parties to communicate further to enable the School to provide a more refined search for Ms. Hughes son's school records. Upon clarification, if necessary, the School must provide a more detailed fee estimate in accordance with the Public Records Law and its Regulations. Id. Order Accordingly, the School is hereby ordered to provide Ms. Hughes with a revised fee estimate in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within ten business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of this response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Sincerely, ~~ Supervisor of Records cc: Ms. Maura Hughes