I found this message in my email a few days back. It may help explain why the School Board members over the past few years have insisted that they got very few complaints about the Red Plan.
Hello All,
I got a call from one of our most dedicated members last night who has also been encouraging frustrated and upset citizens to contact their third District school board member – Tim Grover, and make their feelings known and demand that he begin to represent the citizens in his District or step down. This member shared that they had very recently been made aware by the School District, that our letters are not necessarily being placed in the permanent record as we previously believed. Many of us have written multiple letters to Member Grover, or the School Board as a whole, and noticed that our letters are not noted in the Regular School Board Packet under Communications. When letters are noted there, we know they have been included in the “Permanent Record”. Some of us have had concerns for some time that many of our letters were being sifted out, read then discarded – as we know our email s are. According to this member, they were recently told that if a letter goes to a School Board member, even if it is specifically addressed for instance, “To: School Board Member Tim Grover” – The state statutes say that mail between a private person and an elected official is not public data unless the sender or the receiver makes it public. Therefore any mail addressed only to a single board member is not public unless the sender specifically requests that the letter be made public by including it in the “permanent public record” of the school board. We believe that all letters should be included in the “Permanent Public Record” showing the community’s voice, and as a way of “documenting” complaints and concerns so they can be monitored for corrective action(s) by the school district in the future.
I was told that in at least one instance, a citizen of Member Grover’s District, recently wrote a letter to him as a School Board Member and he brought the letter home to his wife Linda, who read it and apparently telephoned and confronted the letter writer in defense of her husband. I was absolutely outraged at the lack of Professionalism of Member Grover. This was a letter written by a citizen to their “elected” government official who was supposed to be representing them. If the letter had been meant for Tim Grover’s home, then it would have been mailed to his home.
It is further my understanding that the only way they are “required to” include letters in the “Permanent Record” are if you use the following format:
1) Letter Must Be Addressed Specifically
TO: TIM GROVER, SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER CHAIRPERSON or TO: ALL SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS
2) Letter Must Clearly State
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE TO ALL BOARD MEMBERS (if this is your wish)
and must include –
**** MAKE THIS LETTER PART OF THE SCHOOL BOARD’S PERMANENT PUBLIC RECORD.We have been encouraging citizens to follow-up and check if they do not see notice of their letters. We have no idea of how many letters have been written and disposed of and how many have actually made it in to the Permanent Public Record so we are encouraging people who have written in the past, to do so again, even if it is just a copy of their previous letter with the additional information handwritten at the top to insure it makes it into the Permanent Public Record.
