Electronic communication records for former Green Lake Elementary principal
| Submitted | Sept. 13, 2021 |
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Communications
From: Alper Sarikaya
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
1. An electronic copy of all e-mails sent to and from the e-mail box of former Green Lake Elementary principal, Shelley Habenicht Ed.D., from April 1, 2021 to the present day (Sept 2021).
3. Any HR or associated disciplinary records in any medium, relevant to the public, that led to the termination or re-assignment of employment of the aforementioned district employee within the time period specified above. The information requested is not intended to include circumstances of a personal nature, including health, family, or other protected personal information such as address, birth-date, or other identifying information and may be redacted if not relevant to 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,
Alper Sarikaya
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper - this confirms receipt of your records request below.
An initial email search for point 1 of your request returned 13,807 email results. There are likely to be duplicates in the collection, but if not the cost of records responsive to point 1 would be $172.59. This estimate does not include the cost of email attachments, which will be $0.05 for every four attachments.
Before we can give you an estimate of time needed to fulfill your request, I wanted to confirm with you that you want us to proceed reviewing the entire collection. If not, could you suggest any keywords we can add to the search that might narrow the results?
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Karen Stambaugh (she/her/hers)
Assistant General Counsel | Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Email: kjstambaugh@seattleschools.org<mailto:kjstambaugh@seattleschools.org> | Phone: (206) 252-0497
From: Alper Sarikaya
Hello Ms. Stambaugh,
I don't have a good idea of keywords that would help narrow down the large number of e-mail results, so for now we can skip the fulfillment of the first point (#1 above).
I am still interested in the HR or associated disciplinary records in any medium that led to the termination or re-assignment of employment of the named district employee (marked as #3 above). Depending on the content of the records received, I may ask for a follow-up for other records.
Sincerely,
Alper
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper - thanks for the clarification. We will reach out to staff for the records. Given our current workload of open requests, we anticipate having at least a first installment of the records ready on or before October 15, 2021.
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Karen Stambaugh (she/her/hers)
Assistant General Counsel | Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Email: kjstambaugh@seattleschools.org<mailto:kjstambaugh@seattleschools.org> | Phone: (206) 252-0497
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper,
We need a bit more time to produce this installment of records.
Given our staff workload and heavy calendar of open requests, we anticipate having these ready by Wednesday, October 27, 2021, if not sooner.
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Randall Enlow (he/him/his)
Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Phone: (206) 252-0122
Email: rdenlow@seattleschools.org<mailto:rdenlow@seattleschools.org>
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper,
We now anticipate having this installment ready by Wednesday, November 3, 2021, as opposed to the date given below.
Thanks for your patience as we navigate a particularly heavy calendar during busy season.
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Randall Enlow (he/him/his)
Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Phone: (206) 252-0122
Email: rdenlow@seattleschools.org<mailto:rdenlow@seattleschools.org>
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper,
See the attached installment of records.
You indicated below you are not seeking Point 1 emails under this request at this time. Once you have time to review the attached installment, could you please clarify the records you seek for future installments, if any?
Given our staff workload and heavy calendar of open requests, we anticipate having the next installment ready by Friday, December 10, 2021.
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Randall Enlow (he/him/his)
Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Phone: (206) 252-0122
Email: rdenlow@seattleschools.org<mailto:rdenlow@seattleschools.org>
From: Alper Sarikaya
Hello Mr. Enlow,
At this time, I don't anticipate requesting any e-mails or electronic communication related to Point 1 above, thanks for checking.
Thank you for the first installment. I await the second installment on December 10th.
As a point of clarification, I expect that the "Performance Improvement Plan" or "annual employee evaluation" as called out in Section 5 of the Separation Agreement (Aug 10, 2021) will be provided as part of my original request. If you did not originally consider this document as part of the scope of my original request for Point 3 above, please consider it in-scope now.
I appreciate the work to provide this information.
Sincerely,
Alper
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper - Thanks for your email. We've made a note of your clarification.
Have a nice weekend,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Karen Stambaugh (she/her/hers)
Assistant General Counsel | Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Email: kjstambaugh@seattleschools.org<mailto:kjstambaugh@seattleschools.org> | Phone: (206) 252-0497
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper,
See the attached installment of records. These are the remaining items from the investigation case file.
Once you review the attached installment, could you please clarify the records you seek for future installments, if any?
Given our staff workload, heavy calendar of open requests, and the holidays ahead, we anticipate having the next installment ready by Friday, January 7, 2022.
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Randall Enlow (he/him/his)
Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Phone: (206) 252-0122
Email: rdenlow@seattleschools.org<mailto:rdenlow@seattleschools.org>
From: Alper Sarikaya
Hi Mr. Enlow,
Thanks for the latest installment of records. It appears to be largely redundant with the last set of records strike some internal HR e-mail chains.
Can you inform me of the metadata of the records to be processed? Are there other HR investigations not yet provided that led to the termination or re-assignment of employment?
I still (at the very least) expect the document(s) corresponding to and relating to the "annual employee evaluation of Habenicht for the 2021-21 school year" as it is appears in her Employee Relation file (or any other place such as their Personnel File) as denoted by the separation agreement (item B-5) executed August 10, 2021. This document is part of the public interest, held by the district as the public entity, and I expect it to be provided as soon as possible.
Thank you again for the work to provide these records to me.
Sincerely,
Alper Sarikaya
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper,
See the attached installment of records.
Staff in HR confirmed there is no Performance Improvement Plan to provide. They also confirmed there are no open investigations as to this staff member.
As for metadata, we received a .zip folder from HR and provided everything in there responsive to your request. Let us know if you would like any info or records as to that.
You noted previously that we would skip the fulfillment of Point 1 (1. An electronic copy of all e-mails sent to and from the e-mail box of former Green Lake Elementary principal, Shelley Habenicht Ed.D., from April 1, 2021 to the present day (Sept 2021)).
Before we close this request, could you please confirm if you seek any emails under Point 1? If so, are there prioritizing or narrowing terms you would like us to use?
Assuming you seek emails, and given our staff workload and heavy calendar of open requests, we anticipate having the next installment ready by Friday, February 11, 2022.
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Randall Enlow (he/him/his)
Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Phone: (206) 252-0122
Email: rdenlow@seattleschools.org<mailto:rdenlow@seattleschools.org>
From: Alper Sarikaya
Hi Mr. Enlow,
I have a question about the information redacted from the performance evaluation -- all answers/details have been redacted. I would expect that there _are_ specific instances relevant to my inquiry that would be specified in the contents of the document, as communicated to me by staff and parents. I believe this is a result of over-redaction, can you provide me with a new copy?
Please provide this revised copy, or advise as to the rationale for redacting all useful contents of the evaluation. I appreciate taking the time to share your experience.
At this time, I don't need more information other than the response to the above question.
Sincerely,
-Alper
From: Seattle Public Schools
Hi Alper,
We received your attached letter, scanned by staff, last week.
We reviewed the attached installment of records again, and concluded that the redactions were appropriate under case law and RCW 42.56.230(3).<https://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcW/default.aspx?cite=42.56.230>
Here is an excerpt from the Attorney General's Office on this topic:
Employee Performance Evaluations: Courts have held disclosure of an employee's performance evaluations with no discussion of specific incidents of misconduct is presumed to be highly offensive and of no legitimate concern to the public. Dawson v. Daly<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcourts.mrsc.org%2Fsupreme%2F120wn2d%2F120wn2d0782.htm&data=04%7C01%7Crdenlow%40seattleschools.org%7Cf5f0f9691cbe49f4564608d9e4e45064%7Cd431d15860744832878351ea6f6dd227%7C0%7C0%7C637792491526244702%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=SLrXX7ug9bUKzqaspxrLX%2F13BtPr2M1Wrta95q1OyeM%3D&reserved=0> (1993); Brown v. Seattle Public Schools<https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcourts.mrsc.org%2Fmc%2Fcourts%2Fzappellate%2F071wnapp%2F071wnapp0613.htm&data=04%7C01%7Crdenlow%40seattleschools.org%7Cf5f0f9691cbe49f4564608d9e4e45064%7Cd431d15860744832878351ea6f6dd227%7C0%7C0%7C637792491526244702%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=PUhrAyZ1LUTfP4oSYXrE1pDh%2BxXZ30ymTdU0n1FB%2Bpk%3D&reserved=0> (1993). Disclosure of this information between a public employee and supervisor normally serves no legitimate public interest and would impair the candidness of evaluations and employee morale if made public to anyone upon request.
Here, we concluded that, under applicable case law, there are no specific instances of misconduct cited in the evaluation such that the evaluation language would be disclosable under the Public Records Act.
That said, if you would like to appeal this redaction decision, you can do so by petitioning our department for review as outlined in WAC 44-14-080<https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=44-14-080#:~:text=Review%20of%20denials%20of%20public,a%20review%20of%20that%20decision.>. You may do so by replying to this email. We will then forward your request to our supervisor, Senior Legal Counsel, Rachel Disario, for review. Within two business days of receipt of your appeal, she will either affirm or reverse the partial denial.
You note in your letter that, for purposes of this request, you do not require information other than a response to your redaction question. Let us know if you seek additional public records under this request. Otherwise, we are closing this public records matter (PRR 2122-030).
Let us know if you have questions.
Thank you,
[A close up of a sign Description automatically generated]
Randall Enlow (he/him/his)
Public Records Officer
Office of Legal Counsel
Phone: (206) 252-0122
Email: rdenlow@seattleschools.org<mailto:rdenlow@seattleschools.org>
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