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Lehighton board votes down RTK proposals

Published May 03. 2018 12:25PM

Two motions aimed at changing the way Lehighton Area School District handles its Right To Know requests narrowly failed during last week’s board meeting.

Director David Bradley put both items on the floor, first calling for the district’s RTK officer to process all information requests without review by an attorney unless a redaction is required, and the second calling for all items required to be released under the RTK law to be posted on the district’s website.

Both times, the motions failed to pass via a 5-4 vote with board members Larry Stern, Stephen Holland, Andrew Yenser, Rita Spinelli and Wayne Wentz voting no. Joining Bradley with affirmative votes were Richard Beltz, Gail Maholick and Joy Beers.

Bradley said too many RTK requests go to the solicitor, William Schwab, which costs money for his review.

“As a test, I asked people who sent RTK requests to multiple districts,” Bradley said, “and some were replied to instantly with no cost to district and others required a significant cost to the district. If we can circumvent using our solicitor to review all RTK requests and just give people the information, we could save some money.”

Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said not every request is sent to Schwab and some that are do not result in bills.

“I am confident he doesn’t bill us when it’s a simple yes answer,” Cleaver said. “There are some things, like my contract, that don’t go to the attorney to be reviewed. But when someone constantly does RTK requests on an individual’s emails back to 2014, anything like that we would have the solicitor review for redactions. I’m not putting our careers on the line by accidentally sending out something we should not have. If Mr. Schwab says yes and we later face a lawsuit, he would have to defend his position on sending that out.”

Later, Bradley said he can respect that on some occasions a district may want to send something to the solicitor for review. He used the example of a request by a former board member, Stacey Duerst, to find out who filed certain other RTK requests.

“(Schwab) billed the district to review that with her,” Bradley said.

Business Manager Brian Feick said in past practice, Lehighton’s RTK officer has notified Schwab of any requests she isn’t comfortable responding to without his input.

“If we miss something, who is going to get sued?” board President Larry Stern asked. “It isn’t going to be David Bradley. It’s going to be this district, and we should not be assuming that liability.”

After the first motion was voted down, Bradley requested all items required to be released under the RTK law to be posted on the district’s website.

“That would save the lawyer’s time,” he said. “We would be able to enroll hundreds of people to act as our mini auditors and help us manage the district.”

Feick said the Allentown School District uses BoardDocs, the same program as Lehighton, to prepare its board packet for meetings.

“The difference is they pay an extra $9,600 a year to make public the attachments given to the board for their meetings,” Feick said. “We currently don’t do that.”

Bradley stuck to his motion to put all documents available under the RTK law on the website.

“There has to be a better way to do it than the district is currently doing it,” Bradley said.

Before voting the motion down, Yenser said he was doing so because “there are no parameters around this.”

Comments
We voted the corruption out twice but a corrupt judge keeps putting them back in. Not much else we can do as citizens.
Hahahaha you are right except the parties here are..... the good ole boys network and..... everyone else. Which puts the idiots on the board in the first group and the taxpayers in the second!
Look everyone it is still the same old idiots in the good ole boys network voting against ???????????
Personally, I love this vote. So easy to identify those not honoring their oath.

Transparency is coming to Lehighton. The laws demand it, and we have the laws on our side.

Read carefully and remember who voted for transparency and who voted to continue the oppression.

Sincerely,
Citizen David F Bradley, Sr
For official government business, my contacts are as follows:

email: dbradley@lehightongovt.org

Lehighton Area School District
Director David F. Bradley, Sr.
Personal and Confidential
1000 Union Street
Lehighton, Pa 18235

Official district related correspondences sent to any other location will be rejected.
All district business emails are obtainable through an open records request.

All remaining Lehighton.org emails holders signed a document allowing their emails to be monitored by the adminstration, therefore, I would not considered them private.

If you rationally or irrationally fear or perceive there are risks of retaliation against you, your children, or relatives working in the district, I suggest you seek a more private means of communication.

All voices are valued. The PA School Code of our government schools, reference your rights to transparency. Honor the veterans that provided these rights by exercising them. Ensure they remain with us for future generations by sharing the knowledge of your rights with others.

Sincerely,

Citizen David F. Bradley, Sr.

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