Responsive to this request, and per discussions to date, we completed review of emails in batches. Due to the volume of records, files are available upon request.
On June 4, 2021, we provided the first batch of emails resulting from a search of the @hcpss mailboxes for Board members between January 10, 2021, through January 22, 2021, where both the sender and the recipient included an @hcpss.org email address, with the phrase “Black Lives Matter at School Week of Action,” “Black Lives Matter” or “BLM.” Exemptions found within these records included:
- Under MPIA GP § 4-330, we have redacted sociological information where it contains personal phone numbers, addresses (also under MPIA GP § 4-331 for personal contact information specifically of public employees), race, gender and/or has the potential to pose a risk to individual safety or privacy.
- Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, we have redacted information that could reveal individual student information from the responsive records.
On June 11, 2021, we provided a second batch of emails with the same parameters as above. Exemptions found within these records included:
- Under MPIA GP § 4-330, we have redacted sociological information where it contains personal phone numbers, addresses (also under MPIA GP § 4-331 for personal contact information specifically of public employees), race, gender, age and/or has the potential to pose a risk to individual safety or privacy.
- Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, we have redacted information that could reveal individual student information from the responsive records.
On June 17, 2021, we provided the third batch of emails with the same parameters as above. Exemptions found within these records included:
- Under MPIA GP § 4-330, we have redacted sociological information where it contains personal phone numbers, addresses (also under MPIA GP § 4-331 for personal contact information specifically of public employees), race, gender, age and/or has the potential to pose a risk to individual safety or privacy.
- Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, we have redacted information that could reveal individual student information from the responsive records.
- Under MPIA GP § 4-329 we have redacted medical or psychological information about an individual.
- One additional redaction is for content unrelated to the transaction of HCPSS business as a private social media post.
On July 2, 2021, we provided the fourth batch of emails with the same parameters as above. Exemptions found within these records include:
- Under MPIA GP § 4-330, we have redacted sociological information where it contains personal phone numbers, addresses (also under MPIA GP § 4-331 for personal contact information specifically of public employees), race, gender, age and/or has the potential to pose a risk to individual safety or privacy.
- Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, we have redacted information that could reveal individual student information from the responsive records.
On July 22, 2021, we provided attachment files from the records above sought in your July 7, 2021, email. Additionally, per your request for an additional email search that includes “all emails and attachments prior to January 8 related to the January 8 email from the Wilde Lake High School group” and “all emails to/from this group or any other groups or individuals that emails the Board of Education members suggested draft 2021 Black Lives at School resolutions, and any discussion about these drafts that occurred prior to January 8, 2021,” we conducted a search of the @hcpss mailboxes for Board members between November 8, 2020, through January 8, 2021, where either the participant was the group noted, or where keywords included “Black Lives Matter” or “BLM” and “draft” or “resolution.” The results for those that included drafts or discussion of drafts are contained in the fifth batch of emails. Exemptions found within these records included:
- Under MPIA GP § 4-330, we have redacted sociological information where it contains personal addresses (also under MPIA GP § 4-331 for personal contact information specifically of public employees) and/or has the potential to pose a risk to individual safety or privacy.
- Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which restricts access to student records, and MPIA GP § 4-313, which prevents disclosure of school district records pertaining to individual students, we have redacted information that could reveal individual student information from the responsive records.
- Under MPIA GP § 4-338, which requires a custodian to deny inspection of information about the security of an IT system, we have redacted unique internal meeting identifiers such as login, ID and password information.
- One redaction on page 1 for a specific web link falls under each of the above exemptions as it originates from a personal email address/account of a student. The document under this link however is the same as the attachment provided above labeled Batch 4 – Page 172 – 010821 – File = HCPSS BLM at School Resolution.
On September 15, 2021, we provided a response indicating the documents noted/linked from the records above sought in your September 2, 2021, email had been provided in our previous response. Additionally, we noted as the link to the requested documents was created by an outside source, HCPSS does not have access to prior versions or comments which may have been shared at the time of the email. Staff also indicated they do not have prior versions shared from these links, and thus the existing records are those attached to the subsequent email correspondence.