DaSilva, Ana v. Dartmouth, Town of - Public Schools (SPR 20260781)

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records March 18, 2026 SPR26/0781 Kathleen Genthner Records Access Officer Dartmouth Public Schools Office of the Superintendent 8 Bush Street Dartmouth, MA 02749 Dear Ms. Genthner: I have received the petition of Ana DaSilva appealing the response of the Dartmouth Public Schools (School/DPS) to a request for public records. See G. L. c. 66, § l0A; see also 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). On January 8, 2026, Ms. DaSilva requested, “... copies of all existing record related to curriculum purchases made by Dartmouth Public Schools for FY22, FY23, FY24, FY25, and FY26 [including] ... any existing records such as:” [1] Contracts[;] [2] Purchase Orders[;] [3] Invoices[;] [4] Quotes[;] [5] Digital Licenses[;] [6] Textbooks or student editions[;] [7] Teacher editions[;] [8] Supplemental materials[;] [9] Professional development tied to curriculum purchases[.] Prior Appeal This request was the subject of a prior appeal. See SPR26/0245 Determination of the Supervisor of Records (February 10, 2026). In my February 10th determination, I found that the School must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $1,428.75 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). The School responded on February 4, 2026. Unsatisfied with the response, Ms. DaSilva petitioned this office and this appeal, SPR26/0781, was opened as a result. 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 Genthner SPR26/0781 Page 2 March 18, 2026 Fee Estimates – Municipalities 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, § 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). Municipalities may not assess a fee for the first (two) 2 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, § 10(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, § 10(d)(iv). See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii); 950 C.M.R. 32.06(4). Current Appeal In her appeal, Ms. DaSilva stated, “[t]he district’s filing does not comply with the Supervisor’s Determination. The School’s February 4th Response In its February 4, 2026 response, the School provided additional details regarding its fee estimate of $1,428.75. In support of the fee estimate the School stated, DPS remains ready and willing to communicate with you in response to any modified request. However to date you have not communicated with DPS in an attempt to narrow or otherwise modify the Request. This supplemental response is provided to you consistent with the Determination’s direction that DPS provide further explanation of its fee estimate. DPS provided you with a preliminary fee estimate related solely to the portion of your request regarding purchasing records (contracts, purchase orders, invoices, quotes). DPS estimated that it DPS’s schools and offices were closed unexpectedly from February 23-27 as a result of a major winter storm. As a result, those days are not included as business days for purposes of DPS’s response. See 950 CMR 32.02 … DPS estimated that it would take 59.15 hours to search for, compile, and reproduce the requested purchasing records. This is based on an estimate of 3 minutes per purchase, and a total number of 1,107 potentially

Kathleen Genthner SPR26/0781 Page 3 March 18, 2026 responsive purchases, and includes 4 hours DPS had already spent in order to review purchase records for the five fiscal year period requested, and identify the 1,107 purchases which may be potentially responsive. The additional 3 minutes per purchase are the estimated time required to perform the following tasks with respect to each purchase and the associated records: enter the purchase number into the DPS accounting system, review the purchase description to confirm whether it is responsive (ie, whether it is “related to curriculum purchases”), open the invoice as a .pdf file, print or save the invoice, open the quote as a .pdf file (if applicable), print or save the quote, open the contract as a .pdf file (if applicable), print or save the contract, open the digital license as a .pdf file (if applicable), print or save the license, print or save the purchase order. DPS’s estimate of 3 minutes per purchase to perform the above tasks was based on a sample of 5 purchases, which took 13 minutes to complete (2.6 minutes per purchase). None of the 5 records selected contained a digital license or contract in the purchase record; for purchases which do contain these documents, the time required will be longer. Additionally, for purposes of the sample. DPS chose to print each record rather than save the .pdf, which would take more time than printing. Because the Request asks for all records electronically, and because some portion of the responsive records will contain the additional contract and digital license documents which were not included within any of the sample records, DPS submits that 3 minutes per purchase is a reasonable estimate. Based on its estimate of 3 minutes per purchase, it will take 3,309 minutes or 55.15 hours to perform the tasks described above. When the 4 hours of work already performed are added, and the first 2 hours of employee time is removed, the result is 57.15 hours on which the fee estimate is based. DPS hereby clarifies that its preliminary fee estimate does not include any time necessary to redact records under any exemption to the Public Records Law. As described above, the fee estimate is based on the time necessary to search for, compile and reproduce the requested purchasing records only. DPS does not anticipate that any of the purchasing records will contain information subject to redaction for reason. Although the School has estimated that the process of compiling, reviewing, and preparing responsive documents for production will take 57.15 hours of employee time, it is unclear how the School requires this many hours to produce the responsive records. Specifically, the School states that it “. . . will take 3 minutes per purchase to perform the work described above[.]” However, it is not clear why it will take the School 3 minutes per purchase to do the tasks involved in producing the requested records. The School must clarify how many pages there are in a purchase record with and without the digital license documents or contract. As such, the School must provide further details regarding its fee estimate. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iv) (requiring the amount of the fee to be reasonable).

Kathleen Genthner SPR26/0781 Page 4 March 18, 2026 For the reasons discussed above, I find the School must revise its fee estimate or provide further explanation of how the fee estimate of $1,428.75 is consistent with G. L. c. 66, § 10(d). In light of the School’s response, I encourage Ms. DaSilva and the School to communicate in order to facilitate producing records efficiently and affordably. Ms. DaSilva may wish to narrow her request. G. L. c. 66, § l0(a)(i). The School must use its knowledge of the records to facilitate providing any responsive records. G. L. c. 66, § l0(a)(vii) (an agency or municipality shall suggest a reasonable modification of the scope of the request or offer to assist the requestor to modify the scope of the request if doing so would enable the agency or municipality to produce records sought more efficiently and affordably). Conclusion Accordingly, the School is ordered to provide Ms. DaSilva with a response to the request, provided in a manner consistent with this order, the Public Records Law, and its Regulations within ten (10) business days. A copy of any such response must be provided to this office. It is preferable to send an electronic copy of the response to this office at pre@sec.state.ma.us. Ms. DaSilva may appeal the substantive nature of the School’s response within ninety days. See 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1). Sincerely, Manza Arthur Supervisor of Records cc: Ana DaSilva