Editor,

Some important questions that require answers from the South Whidbey School Board:

Why is the highest paid employee in the district (the superintendent) the designated public records officer (PRO), especially when she claims she has better things to do?

The superintendent indicated she had “delegated” a staff person to spend up to two hours per day to fill public records requests. Yet of the few requests that were actually tracked, the time was at the superintendent’s hourly rate. Why?

The board and superintendent claim they are properly trained in the state’s Open Public Records Act after watching a 45-minute video last July. The state holds free seminars every month with full training in public records requests, and the Municipal Research and Services Center (MRSC) provides free legal advice. Instead, the superintendent as the district’s records officer used the expensive district attorney.

When parents submitted requests for student records, Dr. Jo Moccia should have known that those are never treated as public records – they fall under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy ACT (FERPA). Yet she published the parent names and the specific types of student records requested, violating student privacy rights. Adding insult to injury — she blames the parents for not knowing the laws — the laws that as the PRO she is required to follow. Why?

The district claims legal costs of $400,000 or $500,000 and implies that is largely due to public records requests, yet by their own admission they didn’t even start tracking costs until late 2014. Furthermore, contrary to the district’s implication, Mr. Eric Hood is not the only person with which the district has been engaged in litigation with during the last five years. What is the breakdown of the legal costs?

If the district truly valued transparency, they would answer these questions and produce documentation to support their claim that the $400,000-$500,000 was largely due to filling records requests. Adding in the costs of using the costly attorney to find out if records could be released when the MRSC and the state provide that information for free is dishonest, and blaming parents for the superintendent’s lack of knowledge is shameful.

MOLLY MACLEOD-ROBERTS

Langley