New Rcihmond School District News

Deb Heyerdahl Responds to Questions Raised by Brennan In Letter CC'd To Wis. Attorney General Concerning NR School District Handling of Info Request

On the evening of December 1, I saw a letter from Bill Brennan, a member of the New Richmond school board, posted on the www.ontheborderline.net blog site. The letter was addressed to Deb Heyerdahl of the NR school district with a CC to the Wisconsin Attorney General, Peggy A. Lautenschlager. The topic of the letter was: Open Records Request.

(Click here for the Bill Brennan letter post titled "Open Records Violation In New Richmond?")

The letter is a follow-up to a letter Brennan sent to the school district on November 3 requesting a copy of Craig Hitchens, the newly retired, former school superintendent, final, amended contract. Brennan felt he should have received a copy of the final contract within 24 hours of its signing. Brennan was making his request under Wisconsin's open records law, Wis. State 19.35.

Seeing that the state attorney general was cc'd in on the letter, I would say a pretty serious charge was being leveled against the district. So a wrote up a list of five questions concerning the charges and situations surrounding Brennan's request and charges and e-mailed them to Deb Heyerdahl. She e-mailed me her answers to my questions by mid-morning today, Friday, December 2. After reading her responses, I asked her if I could post them on this and the www.newrichmond.blogspot.com sites. She readily agreed to the posting of her answers.

What follows are the questions I submitted to Ms. Heyerdahl and her responses:

12/02/2005
Good morning, Mr. Nelson -
Thanks for the opportunity to respond with the facts concerning this issue:

Q#1: Should Brennan have access to this contract as a school board member?

A#1: Mr. Brennan did get a copy of the requested document as a Board member. This was in executive session.
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Q#2: Are Brennan's charges legitimate?, i.e., did he send you a letter a month ago requesting this information?

A#2: He did request another copy through an open records request on November 3rd.
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Q#3: Are there laws that prevent the public from see Hitchens' contract?

Q#4: If Hitchen's contract is a public document containing public information, why haven't copies been released to Brennan and the News?


A#3-4: Usually contracts are a matter of public record and are released in short order when requested. However, the legal firm that the school district employs (Weld, Riley, Prenn) advised us that in this case (with the negotiated amended contract for Dr. Hitchens) it needed to be treated as a part of his personnel file, which requires a different process for release.

When records from a personnel file are requested, the employee in question has the right to "augment" the file before it is released. The statute specifies notification procedures and timelines to be followed in this augmentation process. In other words, the employee can not delete anything from his/her file, but must be allowed to add additional explanation that he/she deems necessary to explain items in their personnel file and he/she is given a period of time in which this augmentation should be completed.

The following timeline (through 11/21) regarding this specific request was shared at the 11/21/05 Board meeting by President Lester Jones; I have added the more recent events for your information:

11/03/05: Three records request received.

11/03/05: Lester Jones, school board president, advised by counsel to treat Dr. Hitchens' amended contract as a personnel file document.

11/04/05: Wording of district letter to Dr. Hitchens sent to counsel for review, received approval late Friday afternoon.

11/07/05: Certified letter to Dr. Hitchens sent from Deb Heyerdahl's) office.

11/08/05: Same letter actually mailed from our central mail room.

11/11/05: Holiday, no mail.

11/12/05: First attempt at delivery at Dr. Hitchens' home address; he was not home to accept delivery.

11/17/05: Certified letter received and signed for by Dr. Hitchens.

11/18/05: Mr. Brennan informs Lester Jones (by phone message) and Deb Heyerdahl (in person) that he intends to release amended contract to public w/o required augmentation.

11/18/05: Counsel reaffirms that amended contract must be treated as part of personnel file and not released without augmentation.

11/19/05: Dr. Hitchens' amended contract posted on www.ontheborderline.net blog site.

11/21/05: Mr. Brennan confirms in response to a question by Board member Demulling at 11/21 Board meeting in open session that he released the document in question.

11/22/05: Dr. Hitchens picks up copy of personnel file for augmenting.

11/24/05: Thanksgiving.

11/29/05: Dr. Hitchens returned augmentation for personnel file.

11/30/05: Those requesting copies of amended contract notified by phone (including Mr. Brennan) that it is available with the required augmentation.

12/01/05: Heyerdahl received sealed letter from Mr. Brennan at approx. 11:00 AM - it had been hand delivered to the office earlier but I was in a meeting.

12/01/05: Mr. Brennan's letter posted on blog 3:06 PM.

12/01/05: Written response from Heyerdahl mailed to Mr. Brennan, copy to State Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager.
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Q#5: If Hitchen's contract is a public document for public viewing, when can I stop by and pick up a copy?

A#5: You can stop by the district office to pick up a copy of Dr. Hitchens original contract and his amended contract (with augmentation) any time during office hours (7:30 - 4:30 M-Th, 7:30 - 4:00 Friday); please ask for Julie Koop. Or we can mail you the documents upon your written request - email is fine.
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I will make on editorial comment about requesting information from the New Richmond school district. Whenever I have requested information from any representative of the school district, it has been quickly and professionally provided to me. I have always told to feel free to get back to the provider for additional information and/or clarification.

Feel free to comment on this information below. I have also posted this and related information on Bob Ziller's blog site: www.newrichmond.blogspot.com. On that site the information can be found in the The $25,000 Payment To The Superintendent