Sunshine Law Complaint Filed Against U City Schools

U City resident Tom Sullivan filed the complaint; the district says it follows procedure.

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A complaint alleging the School District of University City violated the state Sunshine Law has been filed with the Missouri Attorney General’s office.

University City resident Tom Sullivan filed the complaint, alleging a "considerable effort is being made to keep public records from him."

According to a press release from Sullivan, the school district has "constantly delayed making copies available and wants more than $100 for basic records."

Sullivan's release also states he was charged the following fees for records:

$66.04 for a list of school district administrators and their salaries;
$22.04 for recent e-mails between the board’s assistant and the co-chairs of the campaign for Proposition U, the bond issue proposal on the April 2 ballot.
$25.26 for two reports given at a recent school board meeting.

The School District issued the following statement to University City Patch regarding the complaint:

The District follows its procedure when responding to Missouri Sunshine Law requests for materials. We try to process requests within a timely manner in compliance with the law.

The Missouri Attorney General's office has received the complaint and told Patch it will process the complaint in a timely fashion, in the order in which it was received.

Assistant Attorney General Patricia Churchill said that Sullivan's complaint was received and the AG's office has notified District.

"Any time a complaint like this is submitted to our office, we let the government entity know that a complaint was filed," she said.

Churchill said she did not have a timeline for when the AG's office would review the complaint.

Sullivan has been involved in public policy matters for several years. He was one of five residents to file suit against the City of University City in 2011. He also filed an ethics complaint against the St. Louis County Library in 2012.

Sunshine Week

March 10-16 is 2013 Sunshine Week.

In honor of Sunshine Week, Missouri Attorney General Chris Kosterreleased the top five questions and concerns the Attorney General’s Office fielded about the Sunshine Law in 2012.

The AG's Office has a web site devoted to the Missouri Sunshine Law for the public to review.

See more on Patch:

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Cindy Thierry

7:37 am on Thursday, March 14, 2013

I'ved filed Sunshine requests with the city and more recently with the school district. Both entities charge for administrative time and copies of documents. That seems pretty standard.

Mr. Sullivan could have saved himself some money by searching the database for all of our salaries. Teachers are there as well as administrators. All you need are last names and district. Part and parcel of working for the public:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/stl-info/missouri-educators-salaries/html_39441234-f789-11e1-a379-0019bb30f31a.html

Sarah D

1:44 pm on Friday, March 15, 2013

I am very concerned about a program called Common Core. It is basically a work sheet education that just teaches students to pass tests instead of do their own thinking and it is promoted by a special interest publisher. It is very expensive for states to pay for and one of the criteria is a database with your child's academic records being shared with the Federal Government. Please do your own research and advise Senator Chapelle-Nadal, Sifton or Lamping to vote for SB210. This Bill will prevent the State Board of Education from implementing Common Core.