A staggering FOIA charge has a Hadley Township couple still looking for some answers.
Goodrich School District parents Sherry and Kevin Smith and their 19-year-old son had been a part of the district’s special education program and recently completed his secondary education.
‘The last IEP or Individual Education Plan is very important since it will dictate what he will do after school,? she said.
An IEP is a written plan for the student designed to meet their educational needs.
‘The school district wanted him to go the Transition Center as part of the Genesee Intermediate School District,? Sherry said. ‘Our son’s been a part of the general education program of the school, been a volunteer and has participated in sports’our son was very involved.?
‘We feel the Transition Center is segregated for him and it’s a long bus ride from the Goodrich area. It’s just not right for our son.?
The Transition Center provides a 2-3 year program that focuses on adult work, life skills along with vocational opportunities.
‘Our son’s options are very limited for post secondary and Genesee County has only one to offer,? Sherry said. ‘We wanted him to go to Ready for Life in Holland, Mich. instead of the Transition Center. Ready for Life offers a more inclusive education for him’plus he can take two college classes per semester. That’s a much better fit for him. ?
Ready for Life provides support systems to ensure each student is given the resources that they need to succeed in a college environment.
‘We are upset because there was no explanation why Goodrich choose placement and through the e-mails we could shed some light on how that decision was made,? said Sherry. ‘We wanted to know how they reached the decision on our son.?
So on May 20 the Smiths requested through the Freedom of Information Act all emails from April 1, 2014 to present regarding the name of their son or his initials including, but not limited to, emails between Goodrich Area Schools employees, Genesee Intermediate School District employees, Michigan Department ofEducation employees, etc. ‘If I eliminated a word or two in the FOIA some key part of the school’s decisions may be missed,? she added. ‘So that’s why we requested what we did.?
Michelle Imbrunone, district superintendent, responded to the Smiths on June 10.
Goodrich Area Schools estimates the total cost to fulfill this FOIA will be $77,718.75. This is based on a check of the volume of message traffic and scan of activity from the logs of information available, including deleted emails over the past 14 months that could be relevant to the request. She added that it would be necessary to hire someone to assist with sorting through the email content. The current estimate is that it may require up to 4,687.5 hours at the current clerical hourly employee rate of $16.58 per hour. To move forward a deposit of no less than 50 percent of the estimated total cost would be necessary.
Goodrich Area Schools is exercising its right to charge reasonable costs, she wrote.
‘I’m having a hard time with this amount,? said Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager for the Michigan Press Association.
‘It seems like economic stonewalling to me. It’s background on this couple’s child. But the couple just need to narrow down the search more, I can understand the number of emails could be staggering. For that matter the parents should have been kept in the look to begin with. It really sounds like more of a communication problem if nothing else.?
McGraw added that emails are public records if they were sent on a public computer.