Maureen Ronayne v. Reading Public Schools (SPR 20211880)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records August 11, 2021 SPR21/1880 Jennifer Stys, PhD Assistant Superintendent for Student Services Reading Public School District 82 Oakland Road P.O. Box 180 Reading, MA 01867 Dear Dr. Stys: I have received the petition of Maureen Ronayne appealing the response of the Town of Reading Public School District (District) to a request for public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Specifically, Ms. Ronayne requested: “…all teacher certification in Evidenced Based Reading Instruction. For example, teacher abc at the xyz school is certified in Wilson Level 1 and 2. Or Orton-Gillingham/LiPS/Rave-O or any other Evidenced Based and peer reviewed reading instruction.” In its initial response, the District explained that it does not have a record of this data. The District offered to meet with Ms. Ronayne, including through ZOOM, if that would be helpful to Ms. Ronayne. In a further response on July 26, 2021, the District informed Ms. Ronayne: “[w]e just added language to the contract saying that the staff will be getting a stipend for having a specialized certification like OG or Wilson. At that point we will be collecting and verifying the certifications, as the contract was just ratified. However, we do not have access to them at this point. During the last school year we were very fortunate to have all of our Team Chairs, SLPs, School Psychologists, Special Education Teachers and Literacy Coaches trained in reading and the brain with Crafting Minds…Additionally, we just added a Literacy Coach to work directly with teams and consult on individual cases, as well as, provide professional development for the special education and general education staff. It is anticipated that she will also be helping us create the data base of teacher reading certifications during this school year.” On July 27th, Ms. Ronayne asked, “…[w]hich teachers are delivering Wilson, Orton- Gillingham RAV-O? To deliver it with fidelity, those teachers need to be certified in OG, Wilson 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

Dr. Jennifer Stys SPR21/1880 Page 2 August 11, 2021 or RAV-O.” In response, the District informed Ms. Ronayne, “[w]e have different teachers that are certified at each school. We do not have a list at [the District’s] central office of the certifications at this time. That is something that we will be working on gathering this year with the change in the teacher contract.” Unsatisfied with the District’s response, on July 29th, Ms. Ronayne petitioned the Supervisor of Records (Supervisor), and this appeal was opened. The Public Records Law The Public Records Law strongly favors disclosure by creating a presumption that all governmental records are public records. G. L. c. 66, § 10A(d); 950 C.M.R. 32.03(4). “Public records” is broadly defined to include all documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any town of the Commonwealth, unless falling within a statutory exemption. G. L. c. 4, § 7(26). The duty to comply with requests for records extends to those records that exist and are in the possession, custody, or control of the custodian of records at the time of the request. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(a)(ii). In addition, under the Public Records Law the District is not required to create a record in response to a public records request. See G. L. c. 66, § 6A(d). Based on the District’s responses, you have stated that the District itself does not have a list of teachers certified in evidence-based reading. However, it is unclear whether any of the individual schools in the District have any records on file that may be responsive to Ms. Ronayne’s request. The District must clarify this point. Conclusion Accordingly, the District is ordered to provide Ms. Ronayne with a response to the request, in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law and its Regulations within 10 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, ~ ~- ·o .fJA .... ~ . Rebecca S. Murray Supervisor of Records cc: Maureen Ronayne