Another open records 'win'
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share thisIn the second "open records" exercise this month involving local media, the Shenandoah Valley School Board has more egg on its face.
The board, records show, never voted on the policy cited when a Republican-Herald reporter was kept out of Shenandoah Valley High School's 2009 graduation ceremony. The records were acquired through an open records request filed by the newspaper.
A Republican-Herald reporter was escorted off school property at the high school when attempting to cover the June 1 graduation ceremony. The tension is reportedly connected to the reporter's coverage early on of the Shenandoah beating death case.
On June 10, the Republican-Herald, which is owned by Times-Shamrock Newspapers and is a sister paper of The News-Item, filed an open records request for copies of the policy in question in accordance with the state's Right-to-Know Law.
The News-Item had taken the same steps toward acquiring credit card records for the Northumberland County Adult Probation Department's Act 35 fund. While that request was rejected, we followed the court's direction to file a Rule of Judicial Administration 509 request. A few weeks later, we had our records.
We've since published two stories detailing where and for what the credit card was used, and how the department, in light of county budget cuts, has significantly cut back its travel and training budget for 2009.
In each open records case, the bottom line is not that the newspaper "won" a battle, it's that we were able to better inform the public about the spending, accountability and actions of two distinct government entities. In each case, the public wins.
It should be noted that it isn't only the media that can make an open records request; anyone can. Visit www.openrecords.org for quick instruction and forms.
Whether it's the courts or a school board, an agency that receives an open records request has to take it seriously, as both government bodies did in the cases cited here. It's a reminder that the value of the Right to Know Law is immeasurable, particularly in the improved form it took as of Jan. 1, through which, rather than the public having to prove a record is open, the government has to prove it isn't.
(Heintzelman, editor of The News-Item, writes "The Week In News" for each Saturday edition.)
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