School Department
The school departments performed almost as well as the city and town clerks did in
overall compliance with open records requests. The school departments fulfilled 94.1
percent of the requests, whereas the city and town halls fulfilled 100 percent. The best
school departments were Bristol/Wa rren and Coventry. Both of those departments provided
all of the documents requested, both received the highest ratings for courteousness, and
both had high-quality minutes and budgets. At the other end of the spectrum, Pawtucket and
Chariho each refused more than one request and both were the lowest ratings of any school
department for courteousness.
Four of the five documents requested from the school departments were widely available,
with only a few isolated exceptions. The results from the request for the school contract
settlement were worse. Six departments (out of 34) refused the request. Other departments,
however, had copies of the contract settlement nicely bound and readily available for the
public.
Although the school departments fulfilled nearly the same percentage of requests for
public documents as the city and town clerks did, there were distinct differences in the
ease of obtaining documents from the two departments. In short, it was more difficult to
obtain information from the school departments. Almost twice as many follow-up visits were
necessary for school department requests than were required for the city and town clerks.
School departments were also more likely to require written requests for documents. Five
schools districts required written requests for items as mundane as the school committee
minutes. Cumberland, East Providence, North Providence, and Pawtucket required this
additional step. For the three items requested of city and town clerks, not a single
jurisdiction required a written request. The clerks at the school departments were not as
courteous as the city clerks, but as with the other comparisons above, the school
departments did much better than the police departments.
