May 19, 2021

This correspondence is being sent in response to the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) request you submitted to the Ridgewood Public Schools. As the official Records Custodian, I received this request on May 19, 2021. As such, the seven (7) business day deadline to respond to your request is May 28, 2021. I will be sending a response to your request within this deadline.

If your request for access to a government record has been denied or unfilled within the seven business days required by law, you have a right to challenge the Board’s decision to deny access. At your option, you may either institute a proceeding in the Superior Court of New Jersey or file a complaint with the GRC by completing the Denial of Access Complaint Form. You may contact the GRC by toll-free telephone at (866)-850-0511, by mail at P.O. Box 819, Trenton, New Jersey, 08625, by e-mail at [email address], or at their website at www.state.nj.us/grc. The Council can also answer other questions about the law. All questions regarding complaints filed in Superior Court should be directed to the Court Clerk in your County.

Scott T. Bisig, M.Ed.

Business Administrator/Board Secretary
Ridgewood Public Schools

Dear Sir/Madam:

The Ridgewood Board of Education (“Board”) received your Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”) request and advised that you should expect a response by May 28, 2021. As such, the Board is timely responding to your OPRA request in accordance with New Jersey law.

Your request seeks the following records:

Email server logs (all header information, not the actual body text) for
Criteria 1 – keyword [email address] OR keyword [email address]
Criteria 2 – for the date range Aug 1, 2020 to December 31 2020.
Criteria 3 – The keywords may appear in any field, i.e. to, cc, bcc, subject, from, sender, or body of the message. Either / Or keyword (i.e. if any of the keywords is present, please provide the header / email log).

The Board has identified sixty-one (61) pages of records as responsive to your request. Please note that personal e-mail addresses have been redacted to protect an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1 (providing that “a public agency has a responsibility and an obligation to safeguard from public access a citizen’s personal information with which it has been entrusted when disclosure thereof would violate the citizen’s reasonable expectation of privacy . . .”); Kemery v. Gloucester Twp. Fire District No. 4 (Camden), GRC Complaint No. 2014-290 (2016) (holding that the records custodian properly redacted the personal e-mail address of the Fire Chief); and Wolosky v. Somerset Cty., 2017 WL 1179852 (App. Div. 2017) (holding that the County properly redacted the e-mail and home addresses from the documents provided to the requestor).

Additionally, redactions have been made to remove the subject lines of emails with the Board’s legal counsel as they reflect attorney-client privileged communications that are shielded from public access. See N.J.S.A. 47:1A-1.1 (exempting “any record within the attorney-client privilege” from the definition of a “government record”).

Lastly, redactions have been made to withhold information falling within the personnel records exemption. Personnel records are not considered “government records” under OPRA and are thus exempt from disclosure. N.J.S.A. 47:1A–10.

Your requested information can be found on the dropbox link below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j2e05ihapeki1s...

Your OPRA request is now deemed answered and closed.

Very truly yours,

Scott Bisig
Business Administrator/Board Secretary