Michael Klein v. Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (SPR 20243410)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records January 8, 2025 SPR24/3410 Kathleen Wang Principal Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School 317 Russell Street Hadley, MA 01035 Dear Principal Wang: I have received the petition of Michael Klein appealing the response of the Pioneer Valley Chinese Immersion Charter School (School) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On October 3, 2024, Mr. Klein requested “… copies of school surveys for the past 4 years (8 surveys).” On November 8, 2024, Mr. Klein modified his request to seek “… all parent surveys in possession of [the School] prior to 2021.” Prior Appeal This request was the subject of a prior appeal. See SPR24/3196 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (December 11, 2024). In my December 11th determination, I ordered the School to revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how said fee estimate was consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). The School provided a response on December 20, 2024. Unsatisfied with the response, Mr. Klein petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR24/3410, was opened as a result. Subsequent to the opening of this appeal, the School provided a supplemental response on December 27, 2024. Fee Estimates – Agencies An agency 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, § 10(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 a black and white single or double-sided photocopy of a public record. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(i). 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

Kathleen Wang SPR24/3410 Page 2 January 8, 2025 Agencies may not assess a fee for the first four (4) hours of employee time to search for, compile, segregate, redact or reproduce the record or records requested. G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(ii). Where appropriate, agencies 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. 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 under a petition under G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv). G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). The School’s December 20th and December 27th Responses In its December 20, 2024 response, the School assessed a fee of $150.00, stating: As indicated in our prior responses, the reason the school is estimating four hours for locating the requested documents is due to the age of the surveys being requested. It will take the school significant time to search through its records for all the surveys you are requesting. Some surveys were conducted before the school had initiated using the virtual survey option and as such, the old physical copies will need to be located, should they still exist. The school also believes there may have been some years that an outside consultant was hired to conduct the surveys. The school does not believe that all the old survey results are located together. As such, the School estimates 4 hours to locate the requested documents. The School believes that the Principal is the lowest paid employee who can locate these documents, since the Principal is the employee who has the historical knowledge to determine which surveys may be located where. As such, the School provided a cost of $25.00 per hour to locate the requested documents. In its December 27, 2024 response, the School provided further clarification on the calculation of its fee estimate, stating: The school then estimated 36 minutes to conduct legally required redactions to each document. This estimation is based on the time it took the school to redact the prior surveys from 2018-2024 it has already provided to you. The surveys contain open-ended comments from parents that contain student names and identifiable information that are exempt from disclosure under the public records law under M.G.L. c. 4, § 7(26)(a). The redactions are required to protect student information that are exempt from disclosure and legally protected under FERPA and 603 CMR 23.00. When looking at the surveys the school already provided you, the open ended sections wherein parents provided student information contain between 30-40 different comments that need to be thoroughly reviewed for any student

Kathleen Wang SPR24/3410 Page 3 January 8, 2025 identifying information. Based on the surveys already provided, the number of pages in the surveys range from about 60-80 pages depending on the years. There are approximately 12 pages per survey with 30-40 comments that need to be reviewed. Therefore, estimating approximately 3 minutes per page is not unreasonable, and in all actuality is an underestimation of the time the School is taking to ensure compliance with student privacy law requirements. The lowest paid employees that are able to determine and execute the appropriate redactions are the Principal, MS/HS Education Directors, Director of Education and/or the Director of Student Services all who are compensated at a rate over $25 per hour. After conducting further research, the charter school is considered a state agency, and therefore, under the Public Records Law (M.G.L. c. 66, § 10) it is legally required to waive the first four hours of time responding to this request. Therefore, based on all the above, the PVCICS is requesting to charge $150 to respond to the additional records request for “all parent surveys in possession of PVCICS prior to 2021”. Where the School has explained the amount of time it requires to locate, segregate, and redact the requested records and confirmed that the lowest paid individual with the skill necessary to perform those tasks is paid more than $25.00 per hour, I find that the School has met its burden to establish that it would take this amount of time to produce the responsive records. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d) (a records access officer may assess a reasonable fee for the production of a public record). Conclusion Accordingly, I will now consider this administrative appeal closed. If Mr. Klein is not satisfied with the resolution of this administrative appeal, please be advised that this office shares jurisdiction with the Superior Court of the Commonwealth. See G. L. c. 66, §§ 10(b)(ix), 10A(c) (pursuing administrative appeal does not limit availability of judicial remedies). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Michael Klein