Cleveland newspaper wins release of superintendent evaluations after Open Records dispute
The Bradley County Board of Education released individual evaluation forms of its superintendent to the Cleveland Daily Banner late yesterday but continued to contend the public documents were exempt from the Tennessee Public Records Act. After the board initially refused to disclose the superintendent evaluations, the newspaper contacted Office of Open Records Counsel Elisha Hodge who wrote that it was her opinion that the documents should be released and she was "unaware of any provision within the law that makes these particular records confidential." "In Tennessee, in order for the public to be denied access to a records that exists, the record has to be confidential pursuant to a provision within the [...]