Michigan school tries to charge mother $33 MILLION to view public records
A Detroit mother is fighting against her local school district after being slapped with a nearly $33 million charge for trying to access public records.
During Covid-19, the Rochester Community School District was forced to pay nearly $190,000 to parent Elena Dinverno as settlement for allegedly keeping a 'dossier' on her after she criticized their virtual learning policy.
In a lawsuit filed by Dinverno in Rochester, she claimed that district officials had called her place of work in 2020 and told her employer of her activities - causing her to be fired, according to the Center Square.
Shortly after, Elizabeth Clair, mother to a seventh grader studying in the same district, decided to file a Freedom of Information Act request in 2022.
She wanted to know what the school was doing to 'stem future retaliation against parents', according to The Free Press.
The financial analyst had asked to see six months' worth of emails that had the word 'anti-retaliation' in them.
In September 2022, Clair finally heard back from FOIA Coordinator Matthew McDaniel who told her that she would have to pay about $33,103,232.56 for an employee, who was being paid $46 an hour, to review 21,514,288 emails.
The district also asked for a good faith deposit of $16,551,616.28 for the process to begin.
Elizabeth Clair, mother to a seventh grader, is fighting against the Rochester Community School District after being slapped with a nearly $33 million charge for trying to access public records
The district also asked for a good faith deposit of $16,551,616.28 for the process to begin
'The District estimates that answering your request will require that it review approximately 21,514,288 emails.
'As itemized in detail on the attached cost- estimating sheet, this search would cost approximately $33,103,232.56 to complete.
'In accord with MCL 15.234(8), the District requests that you provide a good-faith deposit of 1⁄2 the estimated cost of fulfilling your request, which is $16,551,616.28.
'If you choose to provide this deposit, the District will provide you an estimated timeline for the completion of your request,' the official letter read.
The mother later told Free Press: 'It's just absurd. For one person making, like, $83,000 a year, it would take them, like, 400 years to fulfill that FOIA request.'
But Clair is not the only Rochester parent to be hit with a gigantic bill.
Mother Jessica Opfer was also told that she would have to pay $25,071,307.16 by the district after filing an FOIA to receive records about why the district got rid of a language arts curriculum.
The request stated that she wished to be given 'copies of all minutes, presentations, correspondence, emails, letters, WhatsApp messages, images or any other written or recorded materials in existence that contain the words "Advanced Language Arts" between January 2019 and June 2022'.
'I obviously wasn't going to pay these exorbitant fees, and at this point, I felt I had hit a brick wall,' Opfer also told the Press.
In September 2022, Clair finally heard back from FOIA Coordinator Matthew McDaniel who told her that she would have to pay about $33,103,232.56 for an employee, who was being paid $46 an hour, to review 21,514,288 emails
After receiving their respective letters, Clair and Opfer tried to negotiate to bring down the prices but no luck.
Clair had attempted to narrow down her request but was told by the district that her new ask would cost her over $1,000 - which 'was still too high' and a sign the district was 'clearly unwilling to cooperate.'
'As taxpayers in the community, as parents who send our kids and entrust our children to these institutions every day, I think everything should be transparent,' Clair said. 'I fail to understand why this district puts up such a fight against us.'
'It just leads me to think,' she continued, 'what are they hiding?'
Lori Grein, a spokesperson for Rochester Community Schools, later noted that both mother's requests required tremendous amounts of staff time to review material that was not public and had to be redacted.
However in March 2022, Carol Beth Litkouhi, a mother of two, sued the district for denying her request for curriculum from the 'History of Ethnic and Gender Studies' class.
Lori Grein, a spokesperson for Rochester Community Schools, later noted that both mother's requests required tremendous amounts of staff time to review material that was not public and had to be redacted
She was told that that the district was 'not knowingly in the possession of any records.
According to the class syllabus, which Litkouhi did get a copy of, 'there should be case studies and readings and assignments, and nothing was turning up.'
'I thought, this makes no sense,' Litkouhi also told the Press.
It remains unclear if Clair and Opfer went ahead with their requests or filed any legal action against the district.
DailyMail,com has reached out to the Rochester Community School District for a comment.
