Bellevue School District #405: Public Records Request for all electronic communications of BSD leadership (07/2022 to 05/2023)
| Tracking # |
PRR 05162023-Anon |
| Submitted | May 17, 2023 |
| Est. Completion | April 26, 2024 |
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Communications
From: PAC Bellevue
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
I request all electronic communications, including but not limited to emails, text messages, and instant messages, sent or received by the following individuals for the period of time between July 1, 2022 and May 16, 2023:
Superintendent Dr. Art Jarvis
Incoming Superintendent Dr. Kelly Aramaki
Deputy Superintendent, Melissa deVita
Deputy Superintendent, Eva Collins
General Counsel, Shannon McMinimee
Please provide me with copies of all such communications in electronic format, preferably in a searchable PDF or text file.
EXEMPTION LOGS
Please ensure all redactions or exemptions claimed by your agency in the production of responsive records are accompanied by a complete and detailed exemption log noting the valid legal reason for each exemption at each redaction location in the record produced, as well as the specific number of pages if any that your agency redacts or withholds in their entirety. Each redaction should be noted by footnote or by a clear reference to the specific justification for that redaction, and only the minimal exempt portion of any record may be withheld.
COMMERCIAL PURPOSE DECLARATION
The Washington State Public Records Act prohibits the disclosure of “lists of individuals” for a commercial purpose (RCW 42.56.070(8)). I declare this public records request is not being made for any commercial purpose whatsoever. Also, this public records request is not being made for a "list of individuals." This declaration satisfies all requirements of RCW 42.56 regarding prohibitions on lists and commercial purposes. No additional commercial purpose declaration will be completed for this public records request.
I am requesting these records in order to conduct research on a matter of public interest. I believe that these records will be helpful in understanding the activities of these individuals and their impact on the public.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
PAC Bellevue
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
We have received your May 17, 2023 request for public records and have assigned it tracking number PRR 05162023-Anon.
I understand your request to be:
I request all electronic communications, including but not limited to emails, text messages, and instant messages, sent or received by the following individuals for the period of time between July 1, 2022 and May 16, 2023:
Superintendent Dr. Art Jarvis
Incoming Superintendent Dr. Kelly Aramaki
Deputy Superintendent, Melissa deVita
Deputy Superintendent, Eva Collins
General Counsel, Shannon McMinimee
Please provide me with copies of all such communications in electronic format, preferably in a searchable PDF or text file.
A clarification question: Are you requesting communications sent/received only between these five staff members, between a subset of the five or all communications sent/received by these employees to/from any source?
The latter search will take considerably longer than the former because – for email communications alone – these staff members appear in tens of thousands of messages annually. For example, during the identified time period, Eva Collins appears in the “to” and/or “from” fields of 23,943 emails. We will need to review each email to check for protected information (such as student identifiers or privileged legal communications). The same will apply to the other forms of electronic communications.
I want to get you what you’re looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible. Perhaps we could break this request into pieces and work on one piece at a time? If you like, we could search first for communications sent/received between these five employees and produce those records to you. We can then move through the remainder of the request in whatever order you prefer. Please let me know if this approach would be acceptable to you.
I have begun identifying potentially responsive email records. Once we hear back from you about the desired scope of your request and your preferred method for organizing our search, I will provide you with an anticipated date for our first production of records.
Best regards,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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~WRD0005
From: PAC Bellevue
As for your suggestion to break down this request, we find this acceptable.
To provide further clarification, the first part of the request is for any electronic communication between these individuals that includes at least one of the mentioned individuals in either the "to", "cc", or "from" fields.
Once this part of the request is fulfilled, we would like to receive all communications as initially requested for these individuals. We would like these records to be provided in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most recent. In terms of priority, we would prefer to receive the records for each individual separately, following this order:
Superintendent Dr. Art Jarvis
Deputy Superintendent, Melissa deVita
Incoming Superintendent Dr. Kelly Aramaki
Deputy Superintendent, Eva Collins
General Counsel, Shannon McMinimee
We believe this will ensure we receive the required information in a prompt manner. We look forward to your timely response and appreciate your assistance in this matter.
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Thank you very much for your response and clarifications. In keeping with your directions, I’ve run the following email archive search:
* All emails sent on or after July 1, 2022 & on or before May 16, 2023
* Where the “to”, “cc”, or “from” fields contain any of the following email addresses:
JarvisA@bsd405.org
DevitaM@bsd405.org
AramakiK@bsd405.org
CollinsE@bsd405.org
McminimeeS@bsd405.org
This search returns 349,698 messages:
[cid:image001.png@01D99465.4588EEF0]
I’m happy to pull those messages and begin the review process but it will take a very long time to complete this production.
With the understanding that, at your direction, we will begin review on the 349,698-message production, would you be willing to start with the following search:
* All emails sent on or after July 1, 2022 & on or before May 16, 2023
* Where the “to”, “cc”, or “from” fields contain any all of the following email addresses:
JarvisA@bsd405.org<mailto:JarvisA@bsd405.org>
DevitaM@bsd405.org<mailto:DevitaM@bsd405.org>
AramakiK@bsd405.org<mailto:AramakiK@bsd405.org>
CollinsE@bsd405.org<mailto:CollinsE@bsd405.org>
McminimeeS@bsd405.org<mailto:McminimeeS@bsd405.org>
This search returns 1,006 messages:
[cid:image002.png@01D99468.02553AF0]
While it will still take some time to review and prep each email for the above search, having a much smaller starting batch will help us get you a complete production as quickly as possible.
Apologies for the lengthy email – I just want you to have all the information so you can make the decision about where we start. As noted above, you can at any point let me know when/if you want to change the direction of our productions. I will begin working on the 1,006-message search now in order to get things moving. Please let me know if this is an acceptable starting-point or if you’d prefer another search for our initial production. If the 1,006-message batch is our agreed starting place, I anticipate that we will have a first installment of records ready on or before July 14, 2023. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
From: PAC Bellevue
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for the detailed update - it's much appreciated. I wanted to clarify that we are looking for electronic communications that include any one (or more) of the five named individuals in the "to", "cc", or "from" fields, not necessarily all five at once. We get that this makes for a lot of messages, but it's what we need for our inquiry. Let's stick with the plan of tackling this in chunks and going in reverse chronological order. This seems like the most practical approach given the volume of records.
One more thing: will the search include other forms of electronic communication apart from emails? For instance, we would be interested in instant messages from Microsoft Teams if they're available.
Looking forward to your response and hearing about the next steps. Thanks again for your work on this.
Best,
PAC Bellevue
From: PAC Bellevue
It seems there might be a small misunderstanding in how we are defining the scope of the request. We initially intended our request to be focused as follows:
We are looking for electronic communications where at least one of the named individuals is in the "from" field, and at least one of them is also in either the "to" or "cc" fields. Our original revision was meant to capture this — we don't need every single message where these individuals are present, but those messages where they are directly communicating with each other. This approach should narrow down the search considerably compared to any communication where these individuals are merely included.
Additionally, could you confirm if other forms of electronic communication like instant messages, specifically from Microsoft Teams, will be included in this search?
Thanks for bearing with us and helping clarify these details.
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Thank you for your follow up message. I’ve had my hands full with a big project for the last few days but wanted to acknowledge receipt and confirm that, yes, we will search for responsive TEAMs chats as well as emails. I will respond fully tomorrow to make sure I have a clear understanding of your request. Thanks for your patience!
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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~WRD0001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Thank you very much for the additional clarification – that’s very helpful. Let’s see if I’ve got it:
Emails, texts, TEAMs chats sent/received 7/1/22 – 5/16/23 where at least one of the individuals named below is in the "from" field, and at least one of them is also in either the "to" or "cc" fields:
Superintendent Dr. Art Jarvis
Deputy Superintendent, Melissa deVita
Incoming Superintendent Dr. Kelly Aramaki
Deputy Superintendent, Eva Collins
General Counsel, Shannon McMinimee
To be provided in reverse chronological order, beginning with the most recent.
Is that the correct starting point for our search? Thanks for your patience while we get this thing pinned down.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
From: PAC Bellevue
Yes, that's spot on! We appreciate all the effort you are putting into getting this sorted out for us. Please go ahead and proceed with the search based on the clarified instructions. Looking forward to seeing the results. Thanks again for all your help!
From: Bellevue School District
Hooray – I’ll get started! I anticipate that we’ll have a first production to you by July 14, 2023. If I have records available sooner, I will get them to you. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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~WRD0000
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Using the link below, please find our first production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request. This production contains 122 email messages (503 pages) sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Melissa Devita from January 1, 2023 to May 16, 2023:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e7vuam8pmx6g689nr88vy/Jarvis-to-Devita-1.1.23_5.16.23-122-msgs-_Redacted.pdf?rlkey=168h1tpyisuwhvdfdtze9oy5o&dl=0
(Please let me know if you have any trouble accessing the records in this format.)
No records have been withheld or exempted from this production. In keeping with our obligations under the Public Records Act, which exempts information identifying students and/or parents [RCW 42.56.230(1) & 42.56.070(1)], we have redacted student/parent names, email addresses and phone numbers from these records. As communications between attorneys and clients are also exempt from production [RCW 42.56.070(1) & RCW 5.60.060(2)(a)], some portions of emails containing those communications have been redacted. Every redaction has been marked with a code corresponding to the attached redaction information sheet. The sheet provides additional information about the basis for each redaction.
I continue to work on responsive emails sent during the period of January 1, 2023 to May 16, 2023 and anticipate that our next installment of records will be ready on or before September 1, 2023. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. Please let me know if you have any questions or if, at any point, you would like me to shift the focus of my productions – always happy to do so.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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image001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Using the link below, please find our second production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request. This production contains 167 email messages (989 pages) sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Melissa Devita from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/5rm9claq0r6i0hrr9dgd7/h?rlkey=h54aeradbsvkyflf0k7f7gazy&dl=0
No records have been withheld or exempted from this production. In keeping with our obligations under the Public Records Act, which exempts information identifying students and/or parents [RCW 42.56.230(1) & 42.56.070(1)], we have redacted student/parent names, email addresses and phone numbers from these records. In addition, references related to medical details of employees’ private, family life have also been redacted under RCW 42.56.230(3). Each redaction has been marked with a code corresponding to the attached information sheet which provides additional detail about the basis for each redaction.
We continue to review records responsive to your request and anticipate that our next production will be available on or before October 13, 2023. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. As always, please let me know if you have any questions, if you have difficulty accessing these records or if, at any point, you would like me to shift the focus of these productions.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel’s Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Attached please find our third production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request. This production contains 121 email messages (342 pages) sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Melissa Devita from January 1, 2023 to May 16, 2023.
No records have been withheld or fully exempted from this production. Again, in keeping with our obligations under RCW 42.56.230(1) and 42.56.070(1), we have redacted student/parent names, email addresses and phone numbers from these records. Exempt attorney-client communications have also been redacted under RCW 5.60.060(2)(a) and 42.56.070(1). One reference related an employee's private, family life has also been redacted under RCW 42.56.230(3). Please see the attached information sheet for additional detail about the basis for these redactions and let me know if you have any questions.
We continue to review records responsive to your request and anticipate that our next production will be available on or before November 17, 2023. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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image001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Attached please find our fourth production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request. This production contains 161 email messages (380 pages) sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Dr. Kelly Aramaki from January 1, 2023 to May 16, 2023.
No records have been withheld or exempted from this production. In keeping with our obligations under RCW 42.56.230(1) and 42.56.070(1), we have redacted student/parent names and email addresses from these records. Exempt attorney-client communications have also been redacted under RCW 5.60.060(2)(a) and 42.56.070(1). One reference related an employee's private family life has been redacted under RCW 42.56.230(3). Please see the attached information sheet for additional detail about the basis for these redactions and let me know if you have any questions.
We continue to review records responsive to your request and anticipate that our next production will be available on or before January 12, 2024. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
-
image001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Attached please find our fifth production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request. This production contains 114 email messages (269 pages) sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Dr. Kelly Aramaki from July 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022.
No records have been withheld or exempted from this production. In keeping with our obligations under RCW 42.56.230(1) and 42.56.070(1), we have redacted student/parent names and email addresses from these records. In addition, one reference related an employee's private family life and one reference to an employee's physical health have been redacted under RCW 42.56.230(3). Please see the attached information sheet for additional detail about the basis for these redactions and let me know if you have any questions.
We continue to review records responsive to your request and anticipate that our next production will be available on or before February 23, 2024. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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image001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Attached please find our sixth production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request. This production contains 271 email messages (885 pages) sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Dr. Eva Collins from July 1, 2022 t0 May 16, 2023.
No records have been withheld or exempted from this production. In keeping with our obligations under RCW 42.56.230(1) and 42.56.070(1), we have redacted student/parent names and email addresses from these records. In addition, several references related an employee's private family life, one reference to an employee's physical health and two threads containing protected attorney client communications have been redacted under RCW 42.56.230(3) and RCW 42.56.070(1). As usual, please see the attached information sheet for details.
Also, if you have a moment, would you let me know if the records I'm producing are what you're wanting to see? When I'm providing records in lots of installments, I like to check in periodically to make sure I'm not just inundating the requestor with info they have no interest in. I think we got our search parameters nicely defined at the outset - but I still like to ask.
We continue to review records responsive to your request and anticipate that our next production will be available on or before March 22, 2024. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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image001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
I check in periodically with requestors whose records are being produced in multiple installments to make sure that they are 1) receiving relevant information and 2) remain interested in continuing to receive future installments.
If our productions to-date are not providing you with the type of record you're looking for, please let me know and we can adjust the parameters of your request. I want to make sure we're getting you what you're looking for!
And if you are no longer interested in receiving records in response to your original request, please let me know and I will close the request. (Closed requests can always be reopened in the future - an email to us will do the trick.)
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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image001
From: Bellevue School District
PRR 05162023-Anon
Dear Requestor:
Please find our seventh production installment of records responsive to your May 16, 2023 request here: [?pdf icon] AJ to SM 4.16.23-5.16.23.pdf<https://bsd405.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/generalcounsel/EY3ltPlYgWlNk_Vv6KNWD00BTTPiuJFrFzEas8ZwZz57Ww?e=BNz0vD>.
This production contains emails sent from Superintendent Jarvis to Shannon Mcminimee from April 16, 2023 - May 16, 2023. Because Ms. Mcminimee is BSD's general counsel, several emails responsive to this portion of your request are exempt from production as attorney-client communications under RCW 5.60.060(2)(a) and RCW 42.56.070(1). While I work on an exemption log (which will show you the date of the message, the sender and recipients, the subject line and the number of pages), this production contains all non-exempt emails from Superintendent Jarvis to Shannon Mcminimee from April 16, 2023 to May 16, 2023 (48 pages). No redactions have been made to these records.
I anticipate that our next production will be ready on or before April 26, 2024. If records are available sooner, I will provide them to you. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Also, when you have a moment, would you please let me know that you're receiving these records, that they're what you're looking for and that you remain interested in receiving future installments? I want to make sure you're getting what you need.
Best,
Sarah
Sarah Kolpacoff
Public Records Officer
General Counsel's Office
Bellevue School District No. 405
(425) 456-4101
publicrecords@bsd405.org<mailto:publicrecords@bsd405.org>
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