Dear Ms. Mindas:

The Lacey Township Public Schools (“District”) Records Custodian received
your Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) and right of access request on
January 6, 2022.  As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond
to your request is January 17, 2022.  This response is therefore being
timely submitted in accordance with New Jersey law.  See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-5.

Your request seeks the following and I will address each one in turn:

• Copies of the signed oaths of Lacey Township School Board Members for
current board members to include January 1, 2029-present or from date
of office if they are only signed initially as some members have
served consecutive terms. 

This appears to be a similar request to your request on December 31, 2021
which is invalid and denied.  Copies of an oath of allegiance, oath of
office, or any affirmation for incoming, current, and former officers and
employees in State, County, or municipal government are exempt from
disclosure under OPRA pursuant to N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1.  Therefore, your
request for copies of signed oaths of Lacey School Board Members is
denied.

• Emails or text messages pertaining to the development and enforcement
of masking, COVID-19 testing, and collecting and storage of
vaccination status in the Lacey Township School District from March 1,
2020 through January 6, 2020.

This is also a similar request to your request on December 31, 2021 which
was invalid and denied. In Elcavage v. West Milford Twp., GRC Complaint
No. 2009-07 and 2009-08 (April 2010), the GRC determined that in
accordance with legal precedent: “[I]n order to specifically identify an
e-mail the OPRA request must contain (1) the content and/or subject of the
e-mail, (2) the specific date or range of dates during which the e-mail
was transmitted or the e-mails were transmitted, and (3) identification of
the sender and/or the recipient thereof.”  Here, your request for emails
and text messages identify a date range.  The date range “March 1, 2020
through January 6, 2020” is unclear.  Also, your request is without regard
to senders or recipients’ information.  Therefore, this information is not
readily available and would require the Records Custodian to conduct
research to analyze, compile, and collate emails and text messages. OPRA
requests may not be a broad generic description of documents that require
the custodian to search the agency’s files and “analyze, compile and
collate” the requested information. See also Lagerkvist v. Office of
Governor of State, 443 N.J. Super. 230, 237 (App. Div. 2015) (holding that
OPRA does not convert a custodian into a researcher, which would have been
the effect of the request); see also Burke v. Ocean Cty., 2013 WL 6169154
(App. Div. 2013) (holding that an OPRA request is not the equivalent of
law suit discovery). 

Accordingly, your request for “emails and text messages . . .” is overly
broad, invalid, and therefore denied.

Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed.  Thank you for your
attention to this matter.  

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