Ronald Alexander v. Wellesley, Town of - Public Schools (SPR 20200187)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor ofR ecords February 13, 2020 SPR20/0187 Cynthia D. Mahr, SFO Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations Wellesley Public Schools 40 Kingsbury Street Wellesley, MA 02481 Dear Ms. Mahr: I have received the petition of Ronald Alexander appealing the response of the Wellesley School Department (Department) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § lOA; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, on January 7, 2019, Mr. Alexander requested "to inspect any and all email messages between WPS Superintendent David Lussier and Fiske Principal Rachel McGregor during the month of May 2016." Previous petition · The requested records were the subject of a fee petition submitted by the Department. See SPR20/0071 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (January 17, 2020). In my January 17th determination, I found the Department had met its burden to explain how the request could not prudently be completed without redaction or segregation or by assessing a fee in excess of $25.00 per hour, given the records may contain confidential information under FERPA and/or other legal privilege exempting the material from public disclosure under the Massachusetts Public Records Law. Current Appeal In his appeal, Mr. Alexander states the following: "there is no reason to believe that the May 2016 emails referenced in the attached fee estimate will contain any redactable information ... [t]herefore, I request an 'in camera' inspection of the 86 records referenced in the attached fee estimate to determine whether there is actually any such redactable information." Based on the foregoing, it is unclear what the basis of Mr. Alexander's appeal is. Specifically, it is uncertain to what pmiion of the Department's claim of redactions under Exemption (a), (c), (d), and attorney-client privilege Mr. Alexander objects. Mr. Alexander is 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

Cynthia D. Mahr, SFO SPR20/0187 Page 2 February 13, 2020 reminded that all petitions for appeal "shall specifically describe the nature of the requestor' s objections to the response or failure to timely respond." 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1)(£). Conclusion Accordingly, Mr. Alexander must describe his specific objections to the Department's January 22nd response. Sincerely, ~~ Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Ronald Alexander