Information About Reimagined Mind Contract with JCBOE
Dear Jersey City Board of Education,
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:
(1) All transcriptions of public comment AND any notes or recordings from closed sessions from special, caucus, and board meetings from the following dates:
REGULAR MEETING December 16, 2021
REORGANIZATION MEETING January 4, 2022
SPECIAL MEETING January 10, 2022
REGULAR MEETING January 27, 2022
SPECIAL MEETING February 4, 2022
REGULAR MEETING February 24, 2022
(2) All communications [Eg: email (whether via their personal or professional account), text messages (whether via their personal or professional device), any written correspondences that were not sent electronically] by and between the Jersey City Board of Education board members regarding Reimagined Mind Counseling & Consultation, LLC in general, or specific to the program components or any of the clinicians/directors/executives employed by the company.
(3) All communications [Eg: email (whether via their personal or professional account), text messages (whether via their personal or professional device), any written correspondences that were not sent electronically] regarding Reimagined Mind Counseling & Consultation, LLC in general, or specific to the program components or any of the company's clinicians/directors/executives that were SENT or RECEIVED by Jersey City Public Schools district administrators and employees including but not limited to:
-The FORMER Superintendent, Mr. Walker
-The INTERIM Superintendent, Ms. Norma Fernandez
-All Assistant Superintendents
-Any other district directors or secretaries
-The district attorney Robert Pruchnik
-AND by any JCPS staff/faculty/personnel at the school level (ie: Principals, Assistant Principals, Teachers, Nurses, Counselors, Social Workers, Service Brokers, etc.)
The district is in receipt of your Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request
dated March 10, 2022 which requests various documents concerning the
December 16, 2021, January 4, 2022, January 10, 2022, January 27, 2022,
February 4, 2022 and February 24, 2022 meetings of the Jersey City Board
of Education.
Please be advised that no transcriptions or recordings from the closed
session are available. Therefore, no documents responsive to your request
are available at this time.
At the time that any notes are transcribed to minutes they will be
presented to the Board of Education for approval and available on the
district website where agendas and meeting minutes are housed.
You may access that site by visiting the district website
([1]www.jcboe.org). On the homepage choose “Board of Education’. From the
drop down list choose “Public Board Docs”. This will bring you to the site
where agendas and minutes are housed. Scrolling through the dates on the
left will bring you to meetings and agendas. Please note that minutes of
meetings are generally approved at the next monthly meeting (e.g. March
minutes would usually be presented for approval at the April meeting.)
Recordings of all Jersey City Board of Education meetings are available on
the district website ([2]www.jcboe.org). on the homepage choose
“Departments and Services”. From the dropdown list choose “JCETV” on that
page click for the listing of all Board meetings that have been recorded.
The other requests fail to specify identifiable government records, and
therefore the Requester’s OPRA request for these items is invalid. MAG
Entertainment, LLC v. Division of Alcoholic Beverage
Control, 375 N.J.Super. 534 (App. Div. 2005), Bent v. Stafford
Police Department, 381 N.J. Super. 30 (App. Div. 2005), and New Jersey
Builders Association v. New Jersey Council on Affordable Housing, 390 N.J.
Super. 166, 180 (App. Div. 2007)
The Appellate Division reversed the order granting MAG's OPRA
request, explained that
"...the request failed to identify with any specificity or particularity
the governmental records sought. ... Such an open-ended demand required
the....custodian to manually search through all of the agency's files,
analyze, compile and collate the information contained therein, and
identify for MAG the [relevant information].[Id. at 549, 868 A.2d 1067.]
To that end, you have not specifically identified a government record.
Your request requires the Custodian to determine which records are
responsive in this instance by reviewing all records identified to
determine whether or not the information contained therein is relevant to
the request.
In the event that you believe that this response has resulted in the
denial of, and/or leaves your OPRA request unfulfilled, you have a right
to challenge the decision made by the Custodian of Records of the Jersey
City Board of Education 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 Government Records Counsel
(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, NJ 08625, by email at GRC ([3]2dca.state.ni.us, or at their
website at [4]www.state.nj.us/grc. The GRC 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.
References
Visible links
1. http://www.jcboe.org/
2. http://www.jcboe.org/
3. http://2dca.state.ni.us/
4. http://www.state.nj.us/grc