Acton Agua Dulce Unified School District School Environmental, Public Records Act and Brown Act issues

From the 8-5-04 School Board agenda

2.15 Ratify the agreement with Michelizzi, Schwabacher, Ward and Bianchi.

The Superintendent wants the School Board to ratify her hiring of these new attorneys to help her violate the Public Records Act and keeps their records secret.

A member of the community, who believes the school district is violating laws concerning special education, made a written request to view various district records. The CA Public Records Act, much like the federal Freedom of Information Act, requires government agencies to make their records open to inspection by the public for free, with a few specified exemptions.

The school responded by claiming they wouldn't allow her to inspect the records, but if she would pay them nearly $300 they would copy selected records for her inspection. They at no time claimed that any of the records she requested were exempt under CA law.

She contacted me, and I gave her a copy of the 1994 Appellate Case that specifically prohibited agencies from making any charge to inspect records. The school, even though faced with the law and an appellate decision upholding the law (which still stands unchallenged after 10 years), still refused to follow the law.

The conversation apparently got a little heated and the superintendent, using your taxpayer funds, and without board authorization, went to court claiming this parent was harassing the school. The Superintendent is in the process of getting a permanent restraining order to block this parent from visiting or calling the district office. The superintendent, in her declaration, has made various claims that seem to be unlikely to be supported by testimony when this goes to trial on August 10th.

Again, the message is, the school does not intend to follow the Public Records Act, or for that matter the Brown Act in the case of the Surplus Property Committee.

If you protest your rights the school will haul you into court (and all of the schools costs are paid from your taxes which will not go to educate the kids). They will claim you are "disruptive" and that your actions to enforce your rights under the law are, in their eyes, harassment.

I wonder what they are trying to hide? When this newspaper requested some documents, we just gave them the $9.90 they wanted, in rolls of pennies, rather than fighting with them.

See a letter to the community "What public records are so sensitive that the school goes to court to block access?"

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