Star News working with Sauk Prairie School District on release of public board documents

The Star News has been working with the Sauk Prairie School District in order to streamline access to board member documents going forward.  Melissa Sumwalt, Administrative Assistant to Superintendent and School Board, is the Star News’ primary point of contact for these documents. Superintendent Jeff Wright is what is known as the “custodian” of the records--permitting their release, redacting where necessary--and Sumwalt delivers the documents. The District is requiring the Star News to file an open records request for each set of documents, as the law requires it. In order to facilitate and simplify the review of the documents on the part of the District, the Star worked with her to develop a system for which documents are being requested. This will ensure the Star News will be able to print Sauk Prairie School District meeting articles on time, and will reduce or eliminate the amount of time the District might have to spend on redactions. Common redactions including any personally identifying information, such as Social Security numbers, addresses, and phone numbers. The Star News does not use this information for articles. Redacting these items on a per document basis could be time consuming for the District. The Star News will still be seeking a legal opinion with the Office of Open Government on the issue of the release of the Continuity of Operations Plan.