Portland Public Schools may allow teachers to delay the release of certain records for up to seven days, according to a new agreement the district has negotiated with its teachers union.
When the district receives public records requests pertaining to a teacher, the agreement would give the employee seven days to object to the documents’ release, according to a draft of the document provided to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The district’s public records office already reviews requested documents for information exempted from disclosure under state law. But the new agreement would allow employees to weigh in, too, on whether the requested documents qualify as a personal privacy exemption.
Portland lawyer Jack Orchard said the new policy invites litigation. Orchard represented a Portland parent who the district sued after she’d requested a list of employees put on paid administrative leave.
“PPS and the union can’t bargain away the public’s right to access public information,” Orchard wrote in an email. “Efforts by PPS to limit public disclosure of all sorts of information about public employee performance, discipline or status has historically generated too much litigation, costing PPS hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years.”
The state’s public records advocate says the district is only codifying state law into its agreement with the teachers’ union. Ginger McCall was appointed by Gov. Kate Brown last year and mediates disputes between the public and state and local government entities.
She told The Oregonian/OregonLive that the district’s seven-day provision adheres to state public records statutes, “which allow for conditional withholding of a public employee’s personal information and give public employees the right to know about and voice an opinion regarding requests for their personal information.”
Still, Orchard maintains the district isn’t adhering to the spirit of the law. He’s successfully fought the district over its public records practices in the past.
The district lost its appeal to keep confidential who it puts on paid administrative leave in a legal fight that ultimately cost nearly $280,000. Portland schools officials claimed they couldn’t release the information to district parent Kim Sordyl and Beth Slovic, who was then a reporter for The Portland Tribune, despite having furnished those records in the past.
Sordyl and Slovic appealed the decision to the Multnomah County district attorney, who later ordered the district to release the records. A PPS lawyer, who has since left the district, then sued the women, arguing the district “needed clarity” on the exemption in the state’s public records law that district officials had cited to deny the request.
Orchard and attorney Jeff Merrick represented Sordyl and Slovic in a countersuit. A judge ruled in their favor last May, then ordered the district to cough up the cash to settle their legal fees.
Now, Orchard says the district’s proposed policy would further limit disclosure of public records.
“No private group can decide how the state’s public records law should be administered,” he said. “After numerous judicial rebukes at such attempts, I would hope PPS would stand for the public on matters of disclosure of public records or information.”
District spokesman Harry Esteve said Portland Public Schools has consulted legal experts in crafting its new agreement with the teachers’ union and should board members approve it next week, it shouldn’t impede records requests.
“Portland Public Schools takes seriously our responsibility to provide public records without undue delay,” he said in an email.
The agreement would require district officials to notify employees if somebody requests a record about them. It also includes a provision requiring Portland Public Schools to produce a tip sheet to inform employees on state public records laws.
The school board will vote on the agreement Tuesday.
-- Eder Campuzano