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Board asks administration for cost estimate to produce cabinet-level emails in sunshine request; amendment narrows scope
Summary
After debate about a public-records (Sunshine) request for communications about snow-day makeup, the board voted to seek a time-and-cost estimate for producing only district leadership/cabinet emails rather than the broad, districtwide request.
The board addressed a Sunshine (public-records) request made by a board member seeking communications related to March board meeting planning and snow‑day makeup. District staff reported the initial search returned a very large dataset—about 6,556 mailboxes and roughly 11,007 emails for the broad snow‑day search—and explained the time and staff hours required to process such a request and to redact student‑ or staff‑private information.
Board discussion considered privacy, staff burden, and the district’s obligation under policy G285B and Sunshine law procedures. A board member proposed and the board approved an amendment narrowing the request to communications among ISD leadership and cabinet members (superintendent and cabinet), with the understanding the administration would return with a specific estimate of time and cost required to produce that narrowed set of records. The amended motion carried; the board directed staff to provide the time and cost estimate before the board decides whether to authorize production.
Administration explained their method for estimating time and cost: a technician samples returned mailboxes, estimates an average per‑mailbox review time, and multiplies by the number of boxes to produce a cost estimate based on a Level‑1 hourly rate. The administration also noted that producing records often requires legal review for redaction and that Sunshine requests can be resource‑intensive.
The board took no immediate step to produce records; it voted to request the administration’s time-and-cost estimate limited to cabinet-level communications before authorizing production.
