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If you really want to know who is wasting school district funds, check out the Lake Pend Oreille School District website (www.lposd.org under the Board of Trustees tab, select Public Records). Take note of the number of public record requests for fiscal year 2017, predominantly made by the same two people, Dan and Kathy Rose.

Typically, a school district may receive 10-20 requests per year. For the fiscal year starting July 1, 2016, there have been 132 requests to date. Some are easy to produce and require very little time to prepare. In the case of most of those on the district’s online file, many necessitate legal advice with regard to confidential matters that are not public records, and of course, in those circumstances, legal fees are charged to the district. Some requests mean the clerk of the Board of Trustees (custodian of the records) spends at least a couple hours from her other duties to prepare the records within the three-day time limit set by Idaho Code, sometimes working with other district employees or going through a document to delete non-public information; details from meetings within the district or emails where students and/or personnel may be discussed are not public records.

Transparency is good, but to me, the number of requests being made is excessive. When there are almost daily requests, the clerk spends an inordinate amount of time working for those requesters.

JULIE MENGHINI

Sandpoint