Following months of the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School claiming an exemption to the state’s Public Records Law and ignoring requests, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell filed an enforcement motion towards the college to make them flip over the withheld paperwork Monday.
Mystic Valley acquired at the least 10 public information requests between January 2022 and November 2022, a launch from the AG’s workplace states, every time declining the requests.
The Supervisor of Records then ordered the college to adjust to the requests a number of occasions, the discharge states, which it once more ignored.
The Massachusetts Public Records Law permits anybody to request information from public entities, inside set parameters. The launch notes that is “essential to promoting transparency and public confidence in government, particularly with respect to matters involving public entities and
public agents.”
Like different Massachusetts constitution colleges, Mystic Valley is a public college financed by way of native, state and federal funds, and its board members are “public agents,” the AG criticism filed Monday states.
“(A)s public schools, the public records laws do apply to us,” a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association confirmed.
The requests have been filed by the Malden News Network, Commonwealth Transparency and Mayoral candidate Lissette Alvarado, the criticism outlines. The requested data included lease information, Board members’ battle of curiosity disclosures, legal professional information, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, monetary information and extra.
In response to every request, the college claimed “as a Commonwealth Charter School, it does not fall under the category of entities handling public documents” and is exempt from the regulation, the criticism says.
The public information regulation permits the AG to “take whatever measures the attorney general considers necessary to ensure compliance.”
The lawsuit is requesting a declaratory judgment from the Suffolk County Superior Court. If the court docket guidelines in favor of the Commonwealth, the college could be required to show over the information and should pay “just and proper” aid to the state.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”