FOIA Procedures and Guidelines
8310A - PUBLIC RECORDS
The District's public records, as defined under the Freedom of Information Act, are available for public inspection and/or copying in accordance with the following administrative guidelines. Exemptions are specified in M.C.L. 15.243.
Designation of Officers
The Superintendent shall be the District Records Officer (DRO) as well as the FOIA Coordinator.
Procedures
The following procedures shall be followed in connection with requests to inspect and secure copies of School District records:
| A. | The Superintendent will determine and advise the requester, within five (5) days, whether the records specified in the request are available for inspection and copying. If a request is denied by the Superintendent, the requestor may seek to compel disclosure or make a written appeal of the denial to the Board. The Board shall act on the appeal within ten (10) days or issue a notice of extension of ten (10) days in which to make the decision.
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| B. | With respect to records which are determined to be available, the Superintendent will direct the requester to the place where the requested records may be inspected and will arrange for the preparation and certification of copies upon tender of any required fee. The Superintendent will establish a time and date for inspection and copying of the requested records.
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| C. | If the request is for enhanced access, the DRO shall make arrangements for the record to be transmitted electronically via the medium selected by the requester. If transmission is by floppy disk, the requestor is to provide the disk at least seventy-two (72) hours in advance. If the transmission is by E-mail, the requester must provide the proper address. The DRO shall be responsible for establishing the appropriate fees for enhanced access which must be paid prior to the transmission of the record(s).
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| D. | Records may be inspected only at the Office of the Superintendent or at such other place as may be designated by him/her. No record may be removed from such location. A member of the staff must be present throughout the inspection and copying of such record.
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| E. | Requests by mail, fax, or E-mail for copies of available records may be addressed to the Superintendent, and will be honored upon payment of any required fee, provided the requester and the record of which a copy is requested are sufficiently identified to make compliance practicable.
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| F. | The District is responsible for providing records of the District but not for providing additional information that may be related to a record but is not part of a record nor is the District required to create a record if none is available.
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Location and Time
Records shall be made available at the Superintendent's Office, during the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, with the exception of the holidays when District Schools are closed.
Fees
Upon written request, copies of said records shall be provided for a fee which will be no more than the actual cost for the duplication plus any applicable clerical costs which will be charged at an hourly rate equal to the lowest hourly rate paid to a full-time staff member capable of retrieving the information being sought by the requester. The FOIA Coordinator shall be responsible for determining which type of public records requests could require a fee payment for search, examination, review, deletion, and separation of exempt from nonexempt information in the record, because the cost would create unreasonably high costs to the District. In such instances, the requester is to be informed, in advance, of the special fees and the reasons thereof.