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Southampton County Public Schools says FOIA dispute will be heard April 22 in Suffolk
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Shannon told the school board that a Freedom of Information Act petition filed by the Southampton County Board of Supervisors will be the subject of a court hearing April 22 after months of attorney negotiations and an estimated production cost of about $30,000.
Dr. Shannon, the superintendent, told the Southampton County Public Schools board that the division will face a hearing April 22 after the Board of Supervisors’ attorneys filed a petition over a multi-category Freedom of Information Act request.
The board was informed that the supervisors’ FOIA request sought 16 categories of financial records extending as far back as 10 years and that school-division counsel had asked the supervisors’ counsel in January to meet to narrow and clarify the request. "Our counsel also informed the Board of Supervisors Council at that time that the cost of supplying those records would be extremely expensive," Dr. Shannon said during the meeting. He said the division provided an estimate of approximately $30,000 to compile the material and that the supervisors’ counsel subsequently filed a petition and requested a hearing.
The hearing was listed for April 22 at 10:30 a.m. at a Suffolk courthouse location given in the board meeting as 150 North Main Street, Third Floor, Suffolk, Virginia. School-division counsel Pamela O'Hare (identified at the meeting as the attorney representing the division) will attend; board members were told they may attend but are not required. The board discussed that its counsel and the supervisors’ counsel had been negotiating the scope and cost of the request in the months after the FOIA was delivered.
Why it matters: Board members and staff said the volume and breadth of the request could interfere with daily operations and that Virginia FOIA rules allow public bodies to charge reasonable costs for staff time, searching and duplicating records. The dispute is therefore both a legal and a resource issue for the division: if fulfilled at full scope, the request would require substantial staff time and expense, the superintendent said.
At the meeting, Dr. Shannon described the sequence: the division acknowledged receipt of the request, invoked a seven-workday extension, proposed meetings to narrow scope, provided a cost estimate, and then received the supervisors’ petition. The board’s legal representative told members the parties had met in January, February and March to try to reduce volume and cost.
Board members asked procedural questions about legal representation and about whether the school board and division counsel were the same lawyer; the superintendent clarified the division will be represented by Pamela O'Hare. The petition and the scheduled hearing, the superintendent said, are the current status of the matter and the attorneys will appear in Suffolk to argue the parties’ positions.
Ending: The board did not take formal action on the FOIA petition at the meeting. The hearing date and location were announced to board members for their information, and the division said it would be represented at the hearing.
