Buckley Obstructs Information Request

Buckley Refuses to Release MVMS Report

Says it will not be made available to the public until tomorrow

GOFFSTOWN, NH  March 4, 2013 4:45 PM–Goffstown Superintendent Buckley has refused our request to have a copy of the consultant report on the Mountain View Middle School available for us at tonight’s meeting of the Goffstown School Board.

As a courtesy, Girard at Large sent an email to Buckley notifying her that we would be present for tonight’s meeting and requested that a copy of the much anticipated report be available to us as a member of the media.  The actual email sent is below.

In her reply, Buckley stated that the report would be posted to the school district’s Web Site tomorrow and that if we wanted a copy, the 116 page report would cost us $29.  That email is also below.

At the time this post was published, Buckley had neither responded to our email or telephone call requesting justification for both withholding a public document and charging for it upon release.  The latter is particularly bizarre for two reasons:  First, it’s going to be posted to the Web site and can be accessed free of charge, so what sense does it make to pay?  Second, $29 will buy an entire case of printer paper and seems excessive.  Since the document must be in electronic format if it will be posted to the district’s Web site, are we to believe that the excessive fee, in addition to paying for 2.3% of a case of paper and a statistically insignificant amount of toner, is to compensate an employee for the two minutes it takes the average printer to spit out a print job that size?

Unfortunately, this appears to be yet another example of how Goffstown Superintendent Stacy Buckley and the Goffstown School Board continue to withhold information the public is entitled to.  Their refusal to have this report available for either interested members of the public or the media at the time of presentation is simply contrary to both the letter and spirit of New Hampshire’s Right to Know Law.  That they would attempt to charge for it is an outrage.

These are the emails that were sent and received: 

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: MVMS Report
From: <“>rich@girardatlarge.com>;
Date: Mon, March 04, 2013 3:27 pm
To: “Stacy Buckley” <“>sbuckley@goffstown.k12.nh.us>;

Thank you.

Rich

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: RE: WestEd report
From: <“>rich@girardatlarge.com>;
Date: Mon, March 04, 2013 3:51 pm
To: “Stacy Buckley” <“>sbuckley@goffstown.k12.nh.us>;

 Thank you for your reply.

 I have two questions.

 1) Why will this not be made available to the media/public tonight?  It is a public document and should be available at the time of distribution.

 2)  For what reason should I pay a fee?  No other community I cover charges me to provide the materials they distribute to board members.

Rich