May 22, 2012 Press Release - Superintendent Statement on the Brown Act and Public Records Act Requests

As a public agency, PAUSD adheres to the California Public Records Act which requires that governmental records shall be disclosed to the public, upon request, unless there is a specific reason not to do so.  Permissible exemptions from disclosure include documents that invade an individual’s right to privacy (e.g., privacy in certain personnel, medical or student records) or hinder the government’s need to perform its assigned functions in a reasonably efficient manner (e.g., maintaining confidentiality of investigative records, official information, records related to pending litigation, and preliminary notes or memoranda).

Submitted Requests


Recent requests and the documents which were disclosed are available below.  Click on a link to obtain more detail.

Date of Request	Requested By	Topic	Status	Disclosed Material
June 2012 - present	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	All emails between Board members and Cabinet members	Ongoing
May 7, 2013 - present	Angela Ruggiero, Daily Post	Copies of documents from the Palo Alto Unified School District for all communications or written documents including emails, between the school district board members and the cabinet members and the Superintendent and the cabinet members starting from April 1, 2013 and future correspondences.	Ongoing
May 7, 2013	Catherine Kirkman	- Data on a per-course basis on grade distribution, including but not limited to Ds and Fs awarded to Black and Latino students.   - Enrollment statistics for Black and Latino students in Honors or AP courses.	In progress
May 7, 2013	Angela Ruggiero, Daily Post	Copies of documents in possession of the Palo Alto Unified School District, or its attorneys, for all communications or written documents including emails, between the District and the United States Office for Civil Rights pertaining to case #09-13-1195, #09- 11-1337 and #09-13-1224. This would include responses for OCR data requests received in the future for these cases. The Daily Post also requests any future letters or correspondences from the OCR on any topic including new investigations of the district.	In progress
April 22, 2013	Lori Parrish, Tamalpais Union High School District	A copy of the organization chart for the IT department at PAUSD	Completed
April 16, 2013	Angela Ruggiero, Daily Post	Pre-K and K enrollment numbers for 2013-14 and Office for Civil Rights complaint letters for cases 09-13-1195 and 09-13-1224	In progress
April 15, 2013	Ken Dauber	The underlying data for the strategic plan survey in a csv file or in electronic form of some kind, such as an Excel file.	Completed for portions that do not require redactions  May 3, 2013
April 12, 2013	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	1. All communications or other written documents, including emails, between the District and the Office for Civil Rights pertaining to OCR case #09-13-1195, including forthcoming responses to the OCR's "Data Request" dated April 10, 2013. 2. All communications or other written documents, including emails, between the District and the Office for Civil Rights pertaining to OCR case #09-13-1224, including responses to any OCR "Data Request" received in the future.	In progress
April 9, 2013	Kevin T. Snider, Pacific Justice Institute	"Writings" regarding Day of Silence Covenant Signing	Completed
April 1, 2013	Angela Ruggiero, Daily Post	Form 700s for all school board members	Completed 4/8/13
March 22, 2013	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	All communications or other written documents, including emails, received since February 15, 2013 from the Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) pertaining to the materials submitted to OCR by the District, its employees or its attorneys pursuant to the Resolution Agreements for OCR case numbers 09-11-1337 and 09-12-1428.	In progress
March 18, 2013	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	1.All documents provided to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) by the District (or its attorneys) pertaining to case numbers 09-11-1337 and 09-12-1428. 2.All communications or other written documents, including emails, related to the OCR complaint, investigation, Resolution Agreement, written findings and/or report in OCR case numbers 09-11-1337 and 09-12-1428 to or from Holly Wade. This request specifically does not include communications with the complainants. 3.All reports, findings, or decisions prepared by school site or district personnel pursuant to procedures set forth in PAUSD’s BP 5145.3 and AR 5145.7, including all the required reports made to the Superintendent or his designee pursuant to these policies, made between January 1, 2011 and today's date. 4.The log of complaints maintained by the district's compliance officer pursuant to the Uniform Complaint Procedure (AR 1312.3) showing all complaints made between January 1, 2011 and today's date. 5.All e-mails or other written communications sent to or from the Duveneck Elementary School principal , containing the words “bully,” “bullying,” “bullied,” “harass," harassing,” or “harassment” between January 1, 2011 and today’s date. 6.All e-mails or other written communications sent to or from the three middle school principals containing the words “bully,” “bullying,” “bullied,” “harass," harassing,” or “harassment” between January 1, 2011 and today’s date. 7.Calendars of Kevin Skelly, Charles Young and Holly Wade for April 30, 2012.	In progress
February 28, 2013	Terri Lobdell, Palo Alto Weekly	I'd like to be sure I understand that when Greg talks about data showing how successful the Solution Teams are, that there is actually no quantitative data or other written information (documentation, report, analysis, evaluation, surveys, communications from students or parents, etc.) about Jordan's experience and results with this Solution Team approach. If there is written data or other written information about the Solution Tetam experience or results, I'd obviously be interested in seeing a copy of it; by this inquiry, I hereby request copies of any such data or documents pursuant to the Public Records Act.	All documents requested were confidential
February 27, 2013	Kristen O'Neill, Data Research Partners	A listing of all Palo Alto Unified School District’s employees first, middle and last names including their title/position, and primary campus location.	Completed 3/7/13
February 11, 2013	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	Legal bills from Lozano Smith and Fagen Friedman and Fulfrost	Completed 2/26/13
February 6, 2013	Bay Area News Group	Annual request for cost of compensation for all full and part time employees and all elected and appointed officials of Palo Alto Unified School District for calendar year 2012.	Completed
January 31, 2013	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	1.All Resolution Agreements executed by Kevin Skelly with the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) between January 1, 2008 and today’s date. 2.All letters from the Office of Civil Rights to Kevin Skelly that include complaints or allegations against PAUSD or findings of OCR investigations related to the above-referenced Resolution Agreements.	Completed 2/5/13 and 2/19/13
January 7, 2013	Terri Lobdell, Palo Alto Weekly	All the data from Infinite Campus for the secondary schools (middle and high) for the past three years (starting with 2010-11) recorded in the 10 categories: bullying, harassment, disruption, defied authority, roughhousing, teasing, caused physical injury; caused, attempted, or threatened physical injury; other, property damage
December 3, 2012	Marc Babin	Documents sufficient to establish, for each grade K through twelfth, inclusive, the number of minutes of physical education each ten schooldays provided to students	Completed 12/18/12
November 8, 2012	Jennifer A. Reisch, Equal Rights Advocates	Title XI related documentation for the District.	Completed 12/5/12
September 8, September 17 and December 14, 2012	Terri Lobdell, Palo Alto Weekly	Survey Data Needed: • PARC survey results from JLS (2008-date). Also, the PowerPoint presentation of the resultsfor Terman and Jordan is one helpful way to look at the issue, but as we discussed, we’d also like to look at the raw survey data. PerhapsDiana Wilmot could be helpful with getting us this. Let me know. • PARC survey results for Gunn and Paly since 2008. • Most recent CHKS survey results. Documentation of Bullying Incidents: • Documents recording, presenting or discussing the number and/or type of bullying incidents reported within the district in the past five years. District Communications with School Sites about Bullying Prevention, Policies and Procedures: • Written communications during the past five years between the district and the school sites (principals, teachers, guidance counselors or other professional staff) regarding anti-bullying policies, programs, trainings, reporting and complaint procedures, interventions in bullying incidents, disciplinary or other corrective measures to be utilized in bullying situations, criteria for when to contact district officials about a bullying situation, and any other matter regarding the subject of bullying policy, trainings and procedures for handling bullying reports and incidents. Bullying Prevention Efforts: • Documents that summarize, describe or discuss what the various Palo Alto schools are doing in terms of bullying prevention programs, efforts and initiatives within the past five years.	Completed 10/1/12, 10/4/12, 10/11/12, 10/18/12, 10/23/12, 11/5/12, 12/10/12 and 1/16/13
June 11, 2012	Ken Dauber	All documents and communications mentioning or on the topics of guidance counseling, the Gunn Review Workgroup or other committees relating to guidance counseling, teacher advisory, communications with Palo Alto high school on the topic of guidance counseling and/or teacher advisory, We Can Do Better Palo Alto, Ken Dauber, Michele Dauber, Shashank Joshi, and the PAUSD school board between March 25 and June 11, involving 25 PAUSD staff members.	Completed July 26, 2012
May 22, 2012	Ken Dauber	All communications with PAUSD staff sent between May 1 and 22 that mention Ken Dauber, Michele Dauber, or any other members of We Can Do Better Palo Alto identified as such.	Request too broad to be completed
May 17, 2012	Ken Dauber	Copies of all communications sent between Katya Villalobos and staff about comparisons between student survey responses at Paly vs. Gunn, the Gunn counseling improvements, the committee formed, the membership of that committee, and all reactions received.	Completed
May 16, 2012	Ken Dauber	All communications relating to an email to the Board from the Superintendent dated April 10, 2012, entitled "Publication about district activities."	Completed July 26, 2012
May 16, 2012	Jen Nowell, Palo Alto Daily Post	Past two years of confidential weeklies from Kevin Skelly to the Board	Completed July 2, 2012
May 14, 2012	Ken Dauber	All communications between the Board and district staff and other Board members on the subject of the "Gunn Guidance Services" email, including but not limited to any drafts or review requests sent to you prior to the sending of the email	Completed
May 8, 2012	William Johnson, Palo Alto Weekly	All Confidential Weekly memos since March 2011 and other non-public communication since March 2012 between Kevin Skelly and the Board of Education; all communications between Katya Villalobos regarding Counseling Programs, Challenge Success and Denise Pope since March 2012	Completed
May 6, 2012	Michele Dauber	All forms of communications and work product relating to twelve topics between PAUSD staff members, PAUSD Board members and the PTAC officers from August 1, 2011 to May 6, 2012	Completed July 26, 2012
May 1, 2012	Ken Dauber	Email communication between District consultant Kelun Zhang and PAUSD staff	Completed May 21, 2012
April 23, 2012	Ken Dauber	Email communication between Board member Barb Mitchell and PAUSD staff between April 1-23, 2012	Completed May 14, 2012

 

How To Make a Request

All public records requests should be made in writing.  The district will respond within ten days to acknowledge receipt of the request and provide a timeline when the information can reasonably be disclosed.

For more information, please see:
The Pocket Guide to the California Public Records Act

Revised April 2013