Keelin B. Ciccariello v. Cannabis Control Commission (SPR 20242460)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records September 12, 2024 SPR24/2575 Paula Rigano-Murray VIA EMAIL MA Dear Paula Rigano-Murray: I have received your letter appealing the response of the Northampton Public Schools to your request for records. I have directed a member of my staff, Mairead Kelly, to review this matter. Upon completion of the review, I will advise you in writing of the disposition of this case. If in the interim you receive a satisfactory response to your request, please notify this office immediately. Any further correspondence concerning this specific appeal should refer to the SPR case number listed under the date of this letter. Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Michele Jarvis 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

From: Paula Rigano-Murray To: Anderson, Drew (SEC) Cc: mjarvis@northampton-k12.us; SEC-DL-PREWEB Subject: Re: SPR24/2469 Determination Date: Wednesday, September 11, 2024 7:34:27 PM Dear Mr. Anderson, I am appealing this decision as I did not receive the copies of the circulated drafts as asked or the public records request by Alex MacSougal and/or the Daily Hampshire Gazette for the drafts and communications around the vote of no confidence on or about June 26th. Thank you, Paula Rigano NASE On Wed, Sep 11, 2024 at 12:38 PM Anderson, Drew (SEC) <Drew.Anderson@sec.state.ma.us> wrote: Hello, Please be aware, the Supervisor of Records has issued a determination relating to an appeal in which you were involved. This determination is attached and available online at: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/AppealsWeb/AppealsStatus.aspx. If you have any questions, please contact the Public Records Division at 617-727-2832 or pre@sec.state.ma.us. Thank you, Drew Anderson Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 Boston, MA, 02108 617-727-2832

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records September 11, 2024 SPR24/2469 Michele L. Jarvis Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Northampton Public Schools 212 Main Street, 2nd Floor Northampton, MA 01060 Dear Ms. Jarvis: I have received the petition of Paula Rigano-Murray appealing the response of the Northampton Public Schools (School) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On July 31, 2024, Ms. Rigano-Murray requested the following records “from June 15 - June 30, 2024:” [A]ll emails and official correspondence regarding the subject of the vote of no confidence in [an identified individual] by the Northampton Association of School Employees including discussions around the school committee’s response, draft responses to the vote, and public records requests or requests for information that were made and/or comments from all news reporters including [an identified individual] of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and [an identified individual] of MassLive with . . . [13 identified individuals]. . . .” On August 13, 2024, Ms. Rigano-Murray modified her request as follows: [A]ll correspondence between [12 identified individuals] regarding the draft responses to NASE’s vote of no confidence as well as all of the drafts that were shared. In addition, please include any correspondence between the above named people and [an identified individual] from the Daily Hampshire Gazette. The time frame I am looking for is June 13th - June 30th. The School responded on August 27, 2024. Unsatisfied with the School’s response, Ms. Rigano-Murray petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR24/2469, was opened as a result. Subsequently, I learned that the School provided a further response on September 4, 2024. Where this appeal was opened as a result of the School’s August 27th response, I will now 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

Michele L. Jarvis SPR24/2469 Page 2 September 11, 2024 consider this administrative appeal closed. Ms. Rigano-Murray may appeal the substantive nature of the School’s September 4th response within ninety (90) days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Paula Rigano-Murray

Kelly, Mairead (SEC) Subject: FW: Failure to respond to records request - Northampton Attachments: Rigano 09-04-24.pdf; Rigano 09-04 attachment.pdf From: Michele Jarvis <mjarvis@northampton‐k12.us> Sent: Wednesday, September 4, 2024 2:46 PM To: Paula Rigano‐Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> Cc: Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us>; Anderson, Drew (SEC) <Drew.Anderson@sec.state.ma.us>; Kelly, Mairead (SEC) <Mairead.Kelly@sec.state.ma.us>; SEC‐DL‐PREWEB <SEC‐DL‐ PREWEB@sec.state.ma.us>; Pam Powers <ppowers@northamptonma.gov>; Portia Bonner <pbonner@northampton‐ k12.us>; Racine, James <JRacine@massteacher.org> Subject: Re: Failure to respond to records request ‐ Northampton Dear Paula Please see a letter and documents attached pertaining to your email. On Fri, Aug 30, 2024 at 11:45 AM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: Correction: August 19 should be August 29 as corrected below. To all concerned, I received the response to my inquiry in this e-mail chain and in response to my failure to respond complaint. This is two days past the deadline despite the date on the letter. I would be okay with that if not for the fact that it did not do what I asked and contained contradictory and seemingly erroneous information. The response to my August 1, 2024, public records request quoted me a figure of $246.25 to read and redact 186 emails. In that response, Dr. Bonner stated that I could narrow the scope of my request, which I then did on August 13, 2024. The follow-up to that request, received on Thursday, August 29, 2024, quoted contradictory fees in two different places. First $246.25 and later $486.50 to read and redact 368 emails. Aside from being an exorbitant amount of money, it clearly did not narrow but rather expanded the scope. How is it that when I changed my request from all emails and correspondence regarding the vote of no confidence to only emails and correspondence regarding the drafts of the school committee's response to the vote, removing 2 people from the inquiry as well, did it double in volume and cost? To rectify this, I would like to immediately receive the copies of all drafts of the response to the vote of no confidence in Superintendent Bonner by the school committee shared prior to the June 26th meeting as well as any public records request by the Daily Hampshire Gazette during the 2 week period I initially requested, at no charge to me. Thank you in advance, Paula Rigano, Northampton Association of School Employees On Fri, Aug 30, 2024 at 10:56 AM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: To all concerned, I received the response to my inquiry in this e-mail chain and in response to my failure to respond complaint. This is two days past the deadline despite the date on the letter. I would be okay with that if not for the fact 1

that it did not do what I asked and contained contradictory and seemingly erroneous information. The response to my August 1, 2024, public records request quoted me a figure of $246.25 to read and redact 186 emails. In that response, Dr. Bonner stated that I could narrow the scope of my request, which I then did on August 13, 2024. The follow-up to that request, received on Thursday, August 19, 2024, quoted contradictory fees in two different places. First $246.25 and later $486.50 to read and redact 368 emails. Aside from being an exorbitant amount of money, it clearly did not narrow but rather expanded the scope. How is it that when I changed my request from all emails and correspondence regarding the vote of no confidence to only emails and correspondence regarding the drafts of the school committee's response to the vote, removing 2 people from the inquiry as well, did it double in volume and cost? To rectify this, I would like to immediately receive the copies of all drafts of the response to the vote of no confidence in Superintendent Bonner by the school committee shared prior to the June 26th meeting as well as any public records request by the Daily Hampshire Gazette during the 2 week period I initially requested, at no charge to me. Thank you in advance, Paula Rigano, Northampton Association of School Employees 2

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records August 29, 2024 SPR24/2469 Paula Rigano-Murray Via Email MA Dear Ms. Rigano-Murray: I have received your letter appealing the response of the City of Northampton - Public Schools to your request for records. I have directed a member of my staff, Mairead Kelly, to review this matter. Upon completion of the review, I will advise you in writing of the disposition of this case. If in the interim you receive a satisfactory response to your request, please notify this office immediately. Any further correspondence concerning this specific appeal should refer to the SPR case number listed under the date of this letter. Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Michele Jarvis 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

From: Chan, Benjamin (SEC) To: SEC-DL-PREWEB Subject: FW: Failure to respond to records request - Northampton Date: Friday, August 30, 2024 8:56:50 AM Very Respectfully, Benjamin Benjamin Chan (he/him/his) Senior Legal Clerk Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 Boston, MA 02108 617-727-2832 From: Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2024 4:54 PM To: Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us> Subject: Re: Failure to respond to records request - Northampton So I have decided to file an appeal. It is very clear in the email above that they did not send this until today so it was not sent within the 10 day time frame. Also, the information in it is incorrect and will require a third request to straighten out. Please let me know how to proceed. Thank you, Paula On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 3:55 PM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: I work in a public school. I am leaving now and will look more closely at the response. While the letter itself is dated August 27th, it was never sent to me. I received it today in this chain for the first time. At first glance it does not appear to be a response to my second request but I could not look at it at work. I will let you know in the morning. Thank you On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 3:51 PM Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us> wrote: Hello, The District provided a response in a letter dated August 27, 2024 and resent the response today, August 29, 2024. As previously stated, where the School District provided a response as stated below, are you seeking to appeal the District’s response dated August 27, 2024?

Very Respectfully, Benjamin Benjamin Chan (he/him/his) Senior Legal Clerk Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 Boston, MA 02108 617-727-2832 From: Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2024 12:04 PM To: Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us> Cc: SEC-DL-PREWEB <SEC-DL-PREWEB@sec.state.ma.us>; Pam Powers <ppowers@northamptonma.gov>; Portia Bonner <pbonner@northampton-k12.us>; Michele Jarvis <mjarvis@northampton-k12.us> Subject: Re: Failure to respond to records request - Northampton I have not received this. On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 12:01 PM Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us> wrote: Hello, Where the School District provided a response as stated below, are you seeking to appeal the District’s response dated August 27, 2024? If you are appealing the District’s August 27, 2024 response, please provide your basis as to what you are specifically appealing/taking issue(s) with towards the District’s response. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Very Respectfully, Benjamin Benjamin Chan (he/him/his) Senior Legal Clerk Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 Boston, MA 02108 617-727-2832 From: Michele Jarvis <mjarvis@northampton-k12.us>

Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2024 11:33 AM To: Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us> Cc: Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com>; SEC-DL-PREWEB <SEC-DL- PREWEB@sec.state.ma.us>; Pam Powers <ppowers@northamptonma.gov>; Portia Bonner <pbonner@northampton-k12.us> Subject: Re: Failure to respond to records request - Northampton Good Morning Please see the attached letter in reference to your request on August 13, 2024. On Thu, Aug 29, 2024 at 10:32 AM Chan, Benjamin (SEC) <Benjamin.Chan@sec.state.ma.us> wrote: Good Morning, Could you please clarify if the correspondence dated August 21, 2024 is an expanded public records request? Very Respectfully, Benjamin Benjamin Chan (he/him/his) Senior Legal Clerk Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division One Ashburton Place, Room 1719 Boston, MA 02108 617-727-2832 From: Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2024 9:02 PM To: SEC-DL-PREWEB <SEC-DL-PREWEB@sec.state.ma.us> Cc: Pam Powers <ppowers@northamptonma.gov>; Michele Jarvis <mjarvis@northampton-k12.us> Subject: Failure to respond to records request - Northampton I am writing to report a failure to respond to a records request. On July 31, 2024, I filed a public records request with the City of Northampton. I received an initial response 10 days later with a quote and an invitation to narrow the scope of the request because it was so costly. After consulting with my attorney, I made a second request on August 13th, narrowing the scope. It should have been straightforward as all the records had already been pulled. I have had no response from the School Records Access Officer to date, despite sending a follow-up email. Please see the email requests and communications attached. Thank-you for your time.

Sincerely, Paula Rigano, Northampton Association of School Employees -- Michele L. Jarvis Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Northampton Public Schools 212 Main Street, 2nd Floor Northampton, MA 01060 413-587-1315 http://www.northamptonschools.org/ Please consider the environment before printing this email. Remember when writing or responding to email, the Massachusetts Secretary of State has determined that e-mail is a public record. All electronic messages sent from the Northampton Public Schools are archived in conformance with Massachusetts and Federal Public Records law.

From: Paula Rigano-Murray To: ppowers@northamptonma.gov Subject: Public Records Request July 31, 2024 Dear Pamela Powers: This is a request under the Massachusetts Public Records Law (M. G. L. Chapter 66, Section 10). I am requesting that I be provided a copy of the following records from June 15 - June 30, 2024: all emails and official correspondence regarding the subject of the vote of no confidence in Superintendent Portia Bonner by the Northampton Association of School Employees including discussions around the school committee’s response, draft responses to the vote, and public records requests or requests for information that were made and/or comments from all news reporters including Alex McDougal of the Daily Hampshire Gazette and Liesel Nygard of MassLive with the following individuals: Northampton Mayor Gina- Louise Sciarra, Chief of Staff Alan Wolf, School Committee Members Gwen Agna, Karen Foster-Cannon, Aline Davis, Michael Stein, Margaret Miller, Kerry LaBounty, Emily Serafy- Cox and Ann Hennessey, School Superintendent Portia Bonner, Michelle Jarvis, and Cassie Eckhoff. The Public Records Law requires you to provide me with a written response within 10 business days. If you cannot comply with my request, you are statutorily required to provide an explanation in writing. Sincerely, Paula Rigano

From: Michele Jarvis To: Paula Rigano-Murray Cc: Pam Powers Subject: Public Records Request Date: Friday, August 9, 2024 2:03:39 PM Attachments: Rigano 08-01-2024.pdf Paula Please find attached a letter in response to your records request dated July 31, 2024. -- Michele L. Jarvis Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Northampton Public Schools 212 Main Street, 2nd Floor Northampton, MA 01060 413-587-1315 http://www.northamptonschools.org/ Please consider the environment before printing this email. Remember when writing or responding to email, the Massachusetts Secretary of State has determined that e-mail is a public record. All electronic messages sent from the Northampton Public Schools are archived in conformance with Massachusetts and Federal Public Records law.

From: Paula Rigano-Murray To: Michele Jarvis Subject: Re: Public Records Request Let me know the new amount and I’ll come drop a check Have a great day! On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 2:08 PM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: Quick follow-up. These should be within the records you already pulled. On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 1:53 PM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: Hi Michelle and Pam, After consulting with my MTA attorney, I have decided to narrow the scope of my request. I would like all correspondence between Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra, School Committee Members Gwen Agna, Karen Foster-Cannon, Aline Davis, Michael Stein, Margaret Miller, Kerry LaBounty, Emily Serafy-Cox and Ann Hennessey, School Superintendent Portia Bonner, Michelle Jarvis, and Cassie Eckhoff, regarding the draft responses to NASE's vote of no confidence as well as all of the drafts that were shared. In addition, please include any correspondence between the above named people and Alex MacDougal from the Daily Hampshire Gazette. The time frame I am looking for is June 13th - June 30th. Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation. Sincerely, Paula Rigano Unit C Chapter Coordinator/Communications Director - NASE On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 7:17 AM Michele Jarvis <mjarvis@northampton-k12.us> wrote: Paula Thank you for letting me know. On Tue, Aug 13, 2024 at 7:05 AM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: Hi Michelle, I will most likely be coming tomorrow. Thank you for your help with this. Paula On Fri, Aug 9, 2024 at 2:52 PM Paula Rigano-Murray <rignur63@gmail.com> wrote: I am out of town until Monday but will drop off a check Tuesday morning On Fri, Aug 9, 2024 at 2:03 PM Michele Jarvis <mjarvis@northampton-k12.us> wrote:

Paula Please find attached a letter in response to your records request dated July 31, 2024. -- Michele L. Jarvis Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Northampton Public Schools 212 Main Street, 2nd Floor Northampton, MA 01060 413-587-1315 http://www.northamptonschools.org/ Please consider the environment before printing this email. Remember when writing or responding to email, the Massachusetts Secretary of State has determined that e-mail is a public record. All electronic messages sent from the Northampton Public Schools are archived in conformance with Massachusetts and Federal Public Records law. -- Michele L. Jarvis Executive Assistant to the Superintendent Northampton Public Schools 212 Main Street, 2nd Floor Northampton, MA 01060 413-587-1315 http://www.northamptonschools.org/ Please consider the environment before printing this email. Remember when writing or responding to email, the Massachusetts Secretary of State has determined that e-mail is a public record. All electronic messages sent from the Northampton Public Schools are archived in conformance with Massachusetts and Federal Public Records law.

From: Paula Rigano-Murray To: Michele Jarvis; Pam Powers Subject: Public Records Request follow-up Hi Michelle and Pam, All of the records had been pulled in initial request. I narrowed down scope for redacting as Superintendent Bonner suggested. I have heard nothing back with regard to cost so I can drop a check off. I need to include public records request communication between Alex MacDougal and Pam Powers as well. Also would have been in original request. Thank you, Paula