Parents, employees and busing: Here's what we found among JCPS open records requests
Personnel files, video footage, parent contact information and, of course, busing questions were at the center of the hundreds of open records requests Jefferson County Public Schools has received since August.
Kentucky's open records law mandates the district allows for the open inspection of many types of records in a certain time frame. Exclusions include records reflecting student academic and health information, and there are certain protections for some employee information as well.
The Courier Journal requested a list of all record requests sent to JCPS between Aug. 1 and December 28, 2023, which showed nearly 800 requests were sent from employees, parents, community members, media and commercial representatives.
Here is what we found out:
Dear JCPS a leader in records requests
The district groups requestors into five different categories, with requests from parents and commercial representatives representing a very low rate of the requests. Most of the requests came from community members, who sent in more than 300 requests.
But one community member, Gay Adelmann, represented about a third of the community's requests. Adelmann is the founder and president of Dear JCPS, an online blog started in 2015 that runs alongside a Facebook group that has about 9,000 members. Adelmann also sought a seat on the JCPS board in 2022. She submitted 105 open records request in the five-month period.
The second-largest group of requests - nearly 200 - came from members of the media.
Employees represented the third-largest group. Of the about 70 employee requests, the vast majority were made by employees seeking records related to their own employment. Many sought investigation reports into themselves.
What JCPS records were sought?
The hottest topic of the school year was also the hottest topic within the open records requests.
More than 130 requests mentioned busing or transportation, and 18 specifically sought records that mentioned AlphaRoute, the Boston firm hired to overhaul the district's transportation system this year.
Personnel files and/or investigation reports for employees were also a popular request. For example, 16 such requests were made solely for Kumar Rashad, who was named one of Kentucky's top teachers of the year shortly before he was reassigned outside the classroom pending an investigation into his actions while breaking up a physical quarrel between students.
That investigation concluded after nearly three months, with the district finding claims made against Rashad unsubstantiated. He returned to the classroom in January.
Who handles JCPS records requests?
Since 2016, the district has received more than 8,000 requests, or an average of nearly 1,400 requests each year. But during the first year of the pandemic, the rate was significantly lower, with just 810 requests.
In comparison - albeit a far smaller district - neighboring Oldham County Schools received about 150 requests during the same time period.
More: Plan introduced to cut time Kentucky students spend riding school buses
Until June 2021, the district employed two staff members who exclusively worked on fulfilling these requests.
Then, for the next two years, the open records staff dropped to one exclusive member, with another staff member who had mixed duties. Since June 2023, the staff has consisted of one exclusive member and two members with mixed duties who help fulfil records requests.
It is unclear how many of the requests were fulfilled, since some of the information requested would fall outside the purview of the open records law.
Contact Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: JCPS open records requests show parents, employees seeking info, too
