Business Insider August 25 2022 public records request
| Submitted | Aug. 25, 2022 |
| Est. Completion | None |
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Communications
From: Insider Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:
-All separation agreements and settlements reached with current and former teachers who taught in the district between January 1, 2017 through the day this request is fulfilled.
-All public records relating to any and all claims of misconduct against current and former teachers who taught in the district between January 1, 2017 through the day this request is fulfilled. Such public records should include, but not be limited to, all complaints; allegations; claims; investigatory reports; analyses; summaries; memoranda and/or notes; interview recordings; transcripts and/or notes; reviews; emails, text or other electronic messages, voicemails, and/or other communications and/or correspondence; determinations; decisions; orders; resignation letters; employment reclassification documents; offers in compromise and/or settlement agreements; termination and/or transfer papers; letters of reproval and/or other disciplinary actions, whether imposed or not; referrals to law enforcement, administrative, and/or licensing agencies, departments, and/or bodies; appeals; court filings and/or rulings; and all similar materials notwithstanding the use of other terminology, nomenclature, or categorization by this or other involved public agencies.
To further clarify this request, the scope of the misconduct at issue arises from, relates to, and/or is a consequence of sexual behavior and/or activities with district students, whether currently or previously enrolled, and notwithstanding whether any such behavior and/or activities were proven to have occurred or not. The construction of this request should be understood to be liberal and expansive, such that all public records which may be remotely responsive should be produced in full and may only be withheld and/or redacted only as required by law.
I would like these records in the electronic format that they are stored in, transmitted via email or other digital method; please refrain from sending paper copies of the records.
Rather than provide all responsive records at once, I ask that you provide copies of records on a rolling basis, as they become available.
If you determine that any of the information qualifies for an exemption from disclosure, I ask you to note whether the exemption is discretionary, and if so whether it is necessary in this case to exercise your discretion to withhold the information. In any event, please provide a signed notification citing the legal authorities on which you rely if you determine that any of the information is exempt and will not be disclosed.
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 7 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Kent Hoover, a citizen of Tennessee, in coordination with Insider Staff.
From: Insider Staff
Good afternoon,
I am following up once more on my public records request, copied below, and originally submitted on August 26, 2022. Please reply to this email with a) copies of all responsive records ready for release as of today, Sept. 7, and b) an estimated date of completion for when I should expect to receive any additional documents.
Thank you,
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Tennessee Public Records Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Aug. 26, 2022. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Sevier County School System
Good morning,
Please submit a copy of a current Tennessee driver’s license or other state
issued identification card related to:
- Kent Hoover.
Once we receive confirmation that Ms. Hoover is indeed a Tennessee
resident, then we will analyze your request(s) under the Tennessee Public
Records Act, and respond with both: (a) a timetable as to when a response
could reasonably occur; and (b) an estimate as to how much it will cost
based on likely labor charges/time. To be clear though, we see that your
request(s) focuses on complaints/investigations related to school system
employees as “a consequence of [alleged] sexual behavior and/or activities
with district students.” If/when any allegation of that type is brought to
the school system’s attention, it is immediately reported to the relevant
local law enforcement agency, and we rely on that agency to conduct an
outside investigation into the same.
Therefore, your request(s) here may be more appropriately addressed to:
- The Sevier County Sheriff’s Office;
- The Sevierville Police Department;
- The Pigeon Forge Police Department; and/or
- The Gatlinburg Police Department.
Sincerely,
Tony Ogle
--
Tony Ogle
Assistant Superintendent of Student Services
Sevier County Board of Education
226 Cedar Street
Sevierville, TN 37862
865-453-4671
www.sevier.org
From: Muckrock Staff
Hello,
Please see attached. Thank you for your help with this request!
From: Sevier County School System
Good morning, Mr. Hoover.
Under the Tennessee Public Records Act (Tenn. Code Ann. § 10-7-503), the
public entity at issue may “furnish the requester in writing, or by
completing a records request response form developed by the office of open
records counsel, the time reasonably necessary to produce the record or
information.” With that in mind, attached please find a completed version
of the form created by the Office of Open Records Counsel. Therein, you
will see that we indicated the following:
As I previously indicated to you, if/when any allegation of this type is
brought to the school system’s attention, it is immediately reported to the
relevant local law enforcement agency, and we rely on that agency to
conduct an outside investigation into the same. Therefore, Sevier County
Schools does not believe that it is in possession of a lot of what you are
requesting. Again, you are welcome to seek those records from local law
enforcement agencies in Sevier County.
There may, however, be suspension letters, corrective letters, or other
documents of the sort within the personnel files of Sevier County Schools’
employees which would be responsive to your open record request. Yet the
school system has no system/software that would track or categorize such
information. This means looking for those type of letters/documents will
literally result in an employee(s) having to physically open and review the
personnel files of thousands of school system employees (and ex-employees)
from January 1, 2017 forward. Under the Public Records Act, a public entity
like Sevier County Schools can charge the requesting party for paper copies
and for labor costs (beyond the first hour). When doing so, we are just
required to provide you with “an estimate of the reasonable costs to
provide copies of the requested material.”
Over the six months of time that we believe it will take to attend to your
request, assuming our employees have other job duties as well, we estimate
the following:
- Likely costs for any paper or electronic copies: Waived due to scope
of labor/time;
- Likely costs for labor after the first hour of work: *$29,991.20*;
- *Holly Smith in HR would need to perform this work due to the
specificity of what you have requested. Sevier County Schools
currently has
10,505 personnel files that Mrs. Smith would need to pull,
review, etc. by
hand. We estimate that such work would take no less than 876.4
hours (with
the first hour not charged to you as per Tennessee law).*
Before I ask our employee to begin processing and working on your request,
please reply to this email and confirm you have accepted our offer to
process your request assuming payment of the estimated costs. Because of
the sheer scope of those costs, Sevier County Schools will also require a
deposit before we ask Mrs. Smith to move away from other duties to attend
to your request. Call or email me at any point to discuss the terms of such
a deposit.
Regards,
Tony Ogle
--
Tony Ogle
Assistant Superintendent of Student Services
Sevier County Board of Education
226 Cedar Street
Sevierville, TN 37862
865-453-4671
www.sevier.org
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