Sumner County Schools Archives - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

24 Feb, 2016

Appeals Court denies Sumner Schools request; deadline to fix public records policy is March 1

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-24T18:28:06-06:00February 24, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee, requests|Tags: Beth Cox, Court of Appeals, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Kirk Clements, Sumner County Schools, The Tennessean|0 Comments

The Court of Appeals in Nashville today denied a request by Sumner County Schools to delay enforcement of a judge's order to bring their public records policy into compliance with the law. Todd Presnell, with Bradley Arrant Boult Cummings, representing the Sumner County School Board That means that the school district must update its policy, which Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay found to be in violation of the Tennessee Public Records Act, by March 1 or risk being held in contempt of court. The Sumner School District has spent more than $113,000 fighting a lawsuit after it refused to let a citizen see a copy of its [...]

11 Feb, 2016

Sumner Schools files emergency motion with Appeals Court over public records policy

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:56:17-05:00February 11, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Court of Appeals, Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Sumner County Schools, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

The Sumner County Board of Education, whose legal bills have now mounted to more than $113,000, has made an emergency motion to the Court of Appeals to stay a judge's order to update their public records policy to come into compliance with the law. Read: Emergency Motion for Review of Stay Order They argue that receiving a citizen's request through the telephone would require system upgrades costing more than $45,660 and receiving requests through email would cost $22,500 annually, in addition to time training staff on how to use the equipment to receive public records requests by these methods. In November, Sumner County Judge Dee David Gay found that the school [...]

31 Jan, 2016

Judge blasts Sumner Schools for refusing to update its public records policy, denies stay

By Deborah Fisher|2016-02-02T12:26:08-06:00January 31, 2016|Categories: public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: Judge Dee David Gay, Ken Jakes, Sumner County Schools, Todd Presnell|0 Comments

Last week, Sumner County Criminal Court Judge Dee David Gay unleashed a verbal whipping to the Sumner County School Board when they argued to stay his order to update its public records policy to come into compliance with the law. The Sumner County School Board wants to wait instead to see what the Court of Appeals says, and argued that allowing requests by phone or through its website would cost "significant public funds." Currently, its policy allows the school board to deny any request from citizens to see public records if the citizen fails to make the request in person or send a letter through the U.S. Postal Service. The dispute started when citizen [...]