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Southampton County School Board members and Southampton County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gwendolyn P. Shannon discussed during the board’s Dec. 9 meeting the possibility of providing a regular report of the previous month’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests received by the school division.

Board Member Dr. Jennifer Tindle started the discussion when she said, “I wanted everybody else’s opinion on requesting a report, in to us, in closed session at the meetings that included FOIA requests that have been sent in since the previous board meeting.”

She said the report she was proposing would not include a lot of detail.

“But just when (the request) was sent, kind of the overall what they were asking for, and then if there were exemptions and we’re not sending information, then what we were or were not sending and when it was replied to,” she said.

Board Chair Dr. Deborah Goodwyn said, “I think it might be good to have the report so that we can see the sheer volume of requests that we’re receiving and to see who is requesting them and we can see that it’s the same person, perhaps, who is making multiple requests.”

Shannon warned that this was going to represent a lot of work, particularly when added to the upcoming workload.

“If we’re going to have to start tracking, especially with the way that the (Southampton County) Board of Supervisors is going and all that’s happening, it’s too much,” she said. “It’s too much work, it’s a lot, and it’s about to really, really get worse. So I don’t know that we’re going to even have time to track everything … unless we want to pay the lawyers to do it, because they’re having to review most of it anyway now.”

Her reference to the Board of Supervisors was an allusion to that board’s endeavor to conduct a forensic audit of the school division.

On Aug. 27, the Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted unanimously to pursue a forensic audit of the school division and requested the School Board’s cooperation in this effort.

The Board of Supervisors’ unanimous vote followed a Citizens Comment Period earlier in the supervisors’ Aug. 27 meeting during which 17 people spoke, all expressing concerns about the state of the school system.

The board’s decision also followed an extended period of time in which some members of the BOS have sought answers to specific questions regarding the school division’s finances.

School Board Counsel Pamela O’Berry, of Sands Anderson PC, stated in a Sept. 19 letter to County Administrator Brian S. Thrower that “a forensic audit is an examination of financial records to derive evidence to prosecute a party for fraud, embezzlement or other financial crimes.”

In that same letter, she indicated that there exists no legal authority for supervisors’ desired forensic audit of the school division.

Edwards said in an Oct. 21 interview that the Board of Supervisors was still going to obtain the equivalent of a forensic audit of SCPS, and he said on Nov. 18 that the Board of Supervisors’ engagement with a law firm was a result of the school division’s lack of cooperation with pursuing the audit.

Stephen C. Piepgrass, of Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, wrote a Nov. 12 letter addressed to O’Berry, and included in it was the following:

“Our firm, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders, LLP, has been retained by the Southampton County Board of Supervisors to conduct an investigation into the management and administrative practices within the Southampton County Public School Division. The review will focus on the financial activities, budgeting, and overall management of the school division, in response to public concerns raised by the community regarding the division’s operation.

“As part of this investigation, we respectfully request your full cooperation in facilitating our review. Specifically, we ask for access to documents and financial records related to grants, budgeting, and management practices within the school division. Additionally, we request access to school employees and members of the school board, as their insights may be crucial to our review.”

During the School Board’s Dec. 9 discussion on FOIA requests, Goodwyn clarified that her idea for a report would be for Shannon to simply provide in January a list of the requests received for December.

“Just a tabulation,” Board Vice Chair Christopher Smith Sr. added.

“You all can tell me what you want done, and I’ll do whatever I can to make it happen, but I’m letting you know up front that it’s going to be a lot,” Shannon said. “Because now (the requests are) going to be coming from the attorneys, they’re not coming from the same folks anymore, the same two, three people who are asking for whatever.”

Goodwyn later said that one way of establishing that more personnel might be needed to respond to FOIA requests is to first establish the burden of the workload.

Board Member Brandon Rodgers said, “I think I agree, because if it becomes that much of a burden, then there’s got to be a justification for why there’s personnel added to the budget to help.”

He said if the board does not have a tracking mechanism, it becomes harder to justify added personnel.

He noted that a FOIA report would also demonstrate to the public the true cost of fulfilling FOIA as a regulation. 

Responding to FOIA requests is “not something we can negotiate,” he said. “We have to do it, so I think tracking it gives us some of that ammunition and would help us understand what that impact is on our day-to-day operations.”

Smith referenced another school division that had significantly more money than SCPS that actually had a department dedicated to addressing FOIA requests, because it is a time-consuming activity, he noted.

He agreed with Rodgers’ point that tabulation of the requests would help illustrate the burden created.

Tindle said, “I think it would also help us to see where the trends are, what’s being asked for, to see if there was some other way that we could be addressing them, something that we could be doing so that we see a decrease in these requests instead of — 

Shannon interjected, “It’s no other way, because a lot of the things that they’re asking for they already know the answers to. A lot of this is a distraction, it’s a distraction to keep us from doing the work that we’re supposed to be doing with the kids.

“Some of the people, it’s like they’re just sitting around just thinking up stuff, honestly, and it’s ridiculous,” Shannon continued. “It really is. It has really gotten to the point of being ridiculous.”

Goodwyn said, “And this would help us see.”

Shannon said, “I’ll do the best that I can.”

To Smith, Shannon said, “And I do appreciate you making the comment about them having a department, because also in FOIA, when you look at the guidelines, it talks about if it is burdensome or if it impacts the normal operation of the school division or what have you, (then) we can take it to the courts. And I am prepared to take it to the courts, because we don’t have the staff to do nothing but FOIAs all day long, we just don’t. 

“And we really don’t have the staff to do the same with all of the tracking and everything else that everyone is requesting, but we will do the best that we can,” she added.

Goodwyn said she sees the proposed FOIA report as a way of building toward increasing staff to meet the demands of the workload, making sure the School Board can justify the need to hire a person, even though SCPS cannot have a full department.

“But that’s why I’m saying we need to find a way to be decreasing (the requests),” Tindle said.

Goodwyn said, “Well, I don’t think they’re going to decrease,” and Smith added that the division has no control over people sending in “crazy requests.”

Tindle said, “No, but there are ways to be more transparent in what we’re doing and we wouldn’t be getting some of these requests.”

School Board Member Cassandra Hobbs said, “And you know that that’s connected to that?”

Tindle contended that there was a connection between transparency and the number of requests.

Goodwyn said, “Bottom line is, hopefully in January, we will see just a list of the FOIA requests that were made in December. … So we can see the amount of work that will go into it, and hopefully that will help us talk about perhaps the need for staffing or to reassign staff, even though it would be taking money away from some other area.”