MARBLEHEAD — The library at Marblehead High School was standing room only at the start of the School Committee’s meeting last Thursday night as dozens of district staff stood with committee members against what they alleged was an excessive amount of Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests from a local newspaper.
Under Massachusetts general law, anyone can request public records, and no statement of purpose is required. The Massachusetts Public Records Act places no restrictions on the use of records.
At one point in the meeting, School Committee Chair Sarah Fox presented a public-records request Marblehead Current reporter Leigh Blander emailed to the School Committee in October. The email contained two records requests. The first asked for “any emails, texts, and documents pertaining to complaints made against anyone in the school community (teachers, administrators, coaches, tutors, paras, lunch aids, etc.) since July.”
That request was made following an Oct. 19 meeting, in which Fox stated the district had apparently received “several complaints against people in the ‘school community’ since the publication of a report in July.”
The second request asked the committee to submit surveillance video to the Current allegedly showing the removal of the Black Lives Matter Banner at the high school. In the request, Blander stated that the Current “had been told that this video exists,” and according to her, was likely filmed on Saturday, Oct. 14.
During the public-comment portion of the meeting, Marblehead Education Association Co-Presidents Jonathan Heller and Sally Shevory expressed concern over the requests.
Heller stated that these requests have cost the district valuable time and resources. According to Heller, 45 FOIA requests had been made since July 1, and the legal fees related to the requests are “estimated at $5,640.”
Heller added that the cost of total staff time for the requests is estimated at $4,000. He said that Marblehead Public Schools has needed to calculate “about 460,000 incoming emails” and has not yet determined the amount of outgoing emails since July 1.
“Not only does this waste significant time and resources for the district, but it causes significant stress for our educators, who become the subject of these investigations, and their reputations come under attack,” Heller said. “While the number of incidents is relatively small to date, the threat they represent is apparent.”
Earlier in his comment, Heller said that “MEA will not tolerate harassment or bullying of any kind, including such behavior directed at our members.”
Blander responded to the criticism in a written statement to Marblehead Weekly News Thursday night.
“In pursuit of our mission to foster democratic participation by informing our readers about important issues, including those that impact students and their families, the Current seeks to make responsible use of the public records laws,” she wrote. “In this case, we were following up on a comment at a public meeting by the School Committee chair about an increase in complaints to the district. As is its right under the public records law, the school district has assessed fees to the Current to offset the cost of complying with public records requests, and the Current has paid several hundred dollars’ worth of such fees.”
“If anyone has a concern about the scope of one of our requests, we will always welcome that conversation,” she added.
Fox could not immediately be reached for comment.