Closed Session Minutes
Dear Teaneck School District,
This is a request for public records made under OPRA and the common law right of access. I am not required to fill out an official form. Please acknowledge receipt of this message.
Records requested:
Closed Session Minutes for the following timeframe:
January, 2019 to April, 2021
Yours faithfully,
Parent
Dear Teaneck School District,
It has now passed the deadline to respond to this request. By law, you were required to respond promptly with documents, denial, or a reason for delay with permission to extend the deadline.
Please provide an update.
Yours faithfully,
Parent
Dear Teaneck School District,
Please pass this on to the person who conducts Open Public Records Act reviews.
I am writing to request an internal review of Teaneck School District's handling of my OPRA request 'Closed Session Minutes'.
I have requested documents that must be turned over within 7 days. It has been weeks. If you do not respond, I will be forced to submit this to the legal channels. I hope that will not be necessary.
A full history of my OPRA request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://opramachine.com/request/closed_s...
Yours faithfully,
Parent of a student
Good Day Parent,
Closed session minutes are confidential in nature and not available for
public review. All confidential minutes that have not been deemed
confidential any longer have been brought to regular session and have been
voted on and are available in our minutes that can be accessed on
our website.
We consider this request completed.
Regards.
Dear Requestor,
“Under OPRA, agencies are required to disclose only ‘identifiable’
governmental records not otherwise exempt.” MAG Ent., LLC v. Div. of
Alcoholic Beverage Control, 375 N.J. Super. 534, 549 (App. Div. 2005).
“Wholesale requests for general information to be analyzed, collated, and
compiled by the responding government entity are not encompassed
therein.” Id. “In short, OPRA does not countenance open-ended searches of
an agency's files.” Id.
Your request for “Closed Session Minutes for the following timeframe:
January 2019 to April 2021” constitutes a ‘[w]holesale request[ ] for
general information to be analyzed, collated and compiled by the
responding government entity[.]’ But see MAG Ent., supra, 375 N.J. Super.
at 549.
To fulfill the above request, the OPRA Custodian would need to research
all minutes, assess which draft closed session minutes were approved of by
the Board of Education at the time of the OPRA request, to then determine
which draft closed session minutes no longer constituted advisory,
consultative or deliberative material pursuant
to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1. But see MAG Ent., supra, 375 N.J. Super. at 549.
As a reasonable accommodation, in lieu of a denial, please be advised that
the approved minutes of the Teaneck Board of Education are available
at: [1]https://www.teaneckschools.org/BoardMeet...
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Melissa Simmons
Dear BOE,
Under OPMA, closed session minutes are required to be kept. Under OPRA, requests for closed session minutes are permitted, with exceptions for redactions.
I requested closed session minutes.
Please clarify if you are refusing to supply them or if you are claiming they do not exist for the timeframe requested.
Yours sincerely,
Parent
Dear Parent:
The district is neither denying you access to responsive government
records nor contending that responsive government records do not exist. In
fact, on June 9, the OPRA Custodian specifically stated, “in lieu of a
denial, please be advised that the approved minutes of the Teaneck Board
of Education are available
at: [1]https://www.teaneckschools.org/BoardMeet...
In Rodriguez v. Kean Univ., GRC Complaint No. 2013-69 (March 2014), the
Government Record Council stated as follows: “Directing a requestor to the
specific location of a government record on the Internet will save
government, and thus taxpayers, time and money, while also providing an
efficient and expedient way for a requestor to easily obtain and examine
the responsive record as required under OPRA.” See id. at *3.
Here, the OPRA Custodian provided you with the specific location on the
Internet where the responsive records reside and can easily be accessed:
[3]https://www.teaneckschools.org/BoardMeet...
In accord with Rodriguez, you have been provided with access to the
responsive government records and the OPRA request is deemed complete.
Thank you,
Melissa