Gilford School District Superintendent Kirk Beitler had decided to blow off my Right to Know Request so of course, I responded (“This School Board Policy Codifies Lying to Parents – The Response.”). And as I learned in a training session a while ago, it was time to double down.
Really, NO Communications about implementing Policy JBAB concerning Transgender and Non-Conforming Students between ANYONE? I found that claim rather ridiculous – not even School Board Meeting notes? How about the Policy Committee – no minutes from that either, Superintendent Beitler? Those would be the minimums.
AND, I dryly note, you folks video every meeting – that’s a form of communications as well, right? And you continue to say none exists.
So I immediately, to repeat myself, decided to double down by quickly sending another RSA 91:A Right To Know demand:
—— Original Message ——
From: “Skip” <Skip@granitegrok.com>
To: “Gandini, Gretchen” <ggandini@sau73.org>; “kthurston@sau73.org” <kthurston@sau73.org>; “jonos@sau73.org” <jonos@sau73.org>; “ksanborn@sau73.org” <ksanborn@sau73.org>; “AKelly@sau73.org” <AKelly@sau73.org>
Sent: 5/27/2021 7:38:50 PM
Subject: Re[2]: RTK documentsLet’s also add this – Is Superintendent Beitler telling me (or hiding from this RTK) that no communications happened before or during the process of approving / deploying Policy JBAB?
That it, all of a sudden, just magically appeared from the NHSBA (just as a single example) and into your meeting packets for discussion? And thence onto the website? With that in mind, please review my Right To Know elements:
- To review any and all communications between any Board members, Professional SAU 73 Staff members, any Advocacy Groups, or any others that have had any indirect or direct impacts / assistanceon the construction of the above section, including emails, letters, voicemails (but not to exclude other formats as necessary)
- To review any and all communications between any Board members, Professional SAU 73 Staff members, any Advocacy Groups, or any others that have had any indirect or direct impacts / assistance on the pros, cons, and eventual acceptance of this process of circumventing both Parental Rights and avoiding FERPA philosophy that Parents have primacy and can demand ALL information about their children.
By telling me that there was NO communications between anyone concerning Policy JBAB??? That no one on the Board discussed with ANYONE else, about this policy? Or District Staff?
How about the ACLU Transgender Project (or the ACLU itself)? GLAAD, GLSEN or any other advocacy group? How about the NHSBA from whence you got this policy? NO emails between staff member in the District or between Kirk and the Board or between the Board members themselves? That doesn’t even pass the smell test.
Yet, with his answer, Superintendent Beitler is holding this unlikely happenstance to be true. Consider, then, this is NEW RSA 91:A demand:
1) An electronic file containing the SAU73.org mailserver log file entires from May, 2019 to the present with the following information:
- TO fields
- FROM fields
- CC fields
- BCC fields
- DATE fields
- SUBJECT fields
where such line item entires contain data filtered for the following word list (case insensitive):
- JBAB
- Transgender
- Non-Conforming
- FERPA
- Parents
legal name- transgender name
- deadname
- gender status
And the Sender / Recipient data contains:
- School Board members (past and present during the time period enumerated above)
- District Staff
- NHSBA personnel
- Any LGBTQIA Advocacy groups’personnel
- ACLU’s personnel
- ACLU Transgender Project’s personnel
And given the recent Superior Court decision between Laura Colquhoun v. City of Nashua (https://granitegrok.com/blog/2021/05/court-orders-city-of-nashua-to-hand-over-the-records-in-citizens-right-to-know-request) I have made sure that this is “narrowly tailored” request for responsive records (emails). The District is responsible for preserving any and all responsive records and this demand requires (the email log). The District is also responsible for maintaining any emails that are listed in the responsive record (the filtered email server log file).
And knowing Brenda [The School District IT Director -Skip] the way I do (she runs a very tight ship – you should be glad she is there!), a “the dog ate my homework” variant isn’t going to play well. If not currently on her server, I am QUITE sure her backup regime will have said information.
2) I will ask again, given the non-response from Superintendent Beitler, for any hard copy communications and voice mails, inter- and intra-District and outside entities concerning Policy JBAB.
-SkipGilford, NH
Again, double down. The email log from May 2019 to the present had better give up some responsive records (a little birdy said that the on-going result has over a quarter million records thus far that have met what they think are the parameters – which means that they’re not doing this right – but that’s on them).
All Beitler had to do was to answer truthfully – and because he has given me cause NOT to trust him in the past, I submitted this. And if they skirt the plain meaning of what is being asked for, I have more.
Don’t doubt me. I’m retired AND I’m personally invested.
