FOIA Procedures

The Superintendent shall serve as the District‘s FOIA Coordinator. He or she is authorized to designate other District staff to act on his or her behalf to accept and process written requests for the District’s public records and approve denials. 

The FOIA Coordinator shall perform the following duties: 

• Logs public records request received by the District. 
• Determines whether requested records/information exist under the name given by the requestor or by another name reasonably known to the District. 
• Determines whether part or all requested records is exempt and separates exempt from nonexempt records. 
• Reviews records to be collected to determine estimated costs, if applicable, to be charged or waived due to indigency. 
• Prepares necessary fee estimates based on the District’s standard fee schedule and forwards the estimates to the requestor. 
• Forwards response to the public records requestor within five business days of receipt of the request or within 15 business days, if an extension was claimed. 
• Where applicable, upon receipt of required payments, mail requested records. 
• Retains and maintains a copy of all written requests for public records on file for no less than one year. 
• Consults with District legal counsel regarding legal issues associated with FOIA compliance. 

Any person can make a public records request under FOIA. 

Requests to inspect or copy public records must be made in writing (including facsimile, email or other electronic transmission) to the FOIA Coordinator for the requested record(s) or his/her designee, and shall sufficiently describe the record to make compliance practicable by enabling the coordinator to identify and locate the record. If available, the date and title of the requested document should be included. Requests should include information broad enough to specify all desired information but narrow enough to be practical when the date and title are unknown. 

District staff shall forward written requests for public records to the FOIA Coordinator in a manner that is timely, consistent and in compliance with applicable law. All requestors will be treated equally unless a law specifically provides otherwise. 

Requestors may include a contact telephone number in their request to allow a District employee to make contact to resolve issues, clarify the scope of a request or help identify a specific document containing the information sought. 

FOIA only applies to existing records and does not require the District to collect information not available, or to research or answer questions. The District is only required to look for an existing record or document in response to a public records request. The District is not obligated to create a new record to comply with a request. However, when records are maintained in an electronic format, the District may be required to retrieve information in response to a public records request, which may result in the creation of a new document when the data is printed out on paper or saved in another type of electronic format. 

The FOIA Coordinator shall file all requests and their dispositions in his/her office and make such reports as are requested by the Board. Filed requests shall be held for a period of at least one year. 

Responding to a Public Records Request 

The FOIA Coordinator shall first determine the scope of the public records request, which involves estimating the time required to search for, examine, separate/delete exempt information and/or copy the requested records. 

The FOIA Coordinator shall then respond to a public records request within five business days unless otherwise agreed to by the requestor in writing. The receipt day shall be counted as day zero. 

The FOIA Coordinator’s response shall do one of the following: 

• Grant the request. 
• Issue a written notice denying the request. 
• Grant the request in part and issue a written notice denying the request in part. 
• Issue a notice extending for not more than 10 business days the period in which the District shall respond to the request. 
• Issue a written notice indicating that all or a portion of the requested information is available on the District’s website. 

If applicable, the FOIA Coordinator shall inform the person making the request of the estimated cost for processing the request. If the estimated cost exceeds $50, the Coordinator shall require a good faith deposit of one-half of the estimated fee before processing the request. (See Fee Deposits on page 22.) 

If the District plans to charge a fee in response to a public records request, the FOIA Coordinator shall issue a detailed fee itemization to the requestor and require that payment be made in full for the allowable fees associated with granting the request before the requested information is delivered. 

Copies of the procedures, guidelines and public summary shall be included with every written response to a public records request. This requirement may be satisfied by providing the requestor with the website link to the documents in lieu of providing paper copies in the response. The documents are available on the District’s website at ppsvikings.org. 

Late Responses

If the District does not respond to a written request in a timely manner as required by FOIA, the fees for labor costs may be reduced by five percent for each day the District exceeds the time permitted under FOIA for a response to a public records request, with a maximum 50 percent reduction. The reduction shall apply if the late response was willful and intentional and the written request included language that conveyed a response for information within the first 250 words of the body of a letter, facsimile or electronic mail attachment, or specifically included the words, characters or abbreviations for “freedom of information,” “information,” “FOIA,” “copy” or a recognizable misspelling of such, or appropriate legal code reference for this act, on the front of an envelope , or in the subject line of an electronic mail, letter or facsimile cover page. 

The reduction shall be noted on the detailed fee itemization. 

Inspection of records by the general public shall be limited to the regular office hours of the building or office that houses the records. Copies of records that are not exempt from disclosure will be available on request.

The District receives numerous requests or inquiries that are not public record requests under FOIA. This includes information readily available on the District’s website, pamphlets, loose-leaf publications and other printed materials produced for public information and disclosure, such as the District’s FOIA Procedures and Guidelines. These day-to-day inquiries to the District for information shall be handled appropriately by District staff under rules established by the District or building administration.

This page is only a summary of the FOIA procedures and guidelines. For more details and information, copies of the District’s FOIA Procedures and Guidelines are available at no charge at the District’s central office.

Potterville Public Schools FOIA Procedures and Guidelines Manual