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Southampton County Public Schools Chairwoman Dr. Deborah Goodwyn provided context Monday, April 14, pertaining to the level of communication that had come from the Southampton County School Board’s attorney prior to the county Board of Supervisors’ recent decision to file suit against SCPS.

The suit was filed because of a reported lack of response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests submitted by Troutman Pepper Locke LLP, the firm representing the Southampton County Board of Supervisors.

Goodwyn’s comments came during the School Board’s regular monthly meeting on April 14. 

She wanted to make clear that, regarding the FOIA requests, the person representing SCPS, Pamela O’Berry of Sands Anderson PC, had been in touch with Troutman Pepper. 

“I didn’t want you to think that nothing had been done between the time we received the FOIA request in December and the time that we received this request to appear in court,” Goodwyn said. “But I did want to make clear that our attorney has been working, so we were not ignoring the request and that we had been in touch with the legal representation for the Board of Supervisors … and the attorneys have been meeting and have been trying to narrow the scope of the FOIA request to make it less costly to supply the information that was requested on the initial FOIA request.

“And apparently the Board of Supervisors has given its attorney different instructions, and now we will have a hearing about this matter, and it’s still about that FOIA request that we received in December,” she said.

She noted that the hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. or soon thereafter on Tuesday, April 22, on the third floor of the Mills E. Godwin Courts Building, located at 150 N. Main St. in Suffolk.

Though the hearing location is in Suffolk, the Virginia Courts Case Information system indicates that the hearing is a matter of the Southampton Circuit Court – Civil Division.

Near the beginning of Goodwyn’s comments on April 14, she said, “As you know that back in December, I think it was December the 20th, that we received a FOIA request sent through the U.S. mail and postmarked 12/20 that was addressed to our post office box number.

“The FOIA request was for 16 categories of financial data reports and documents going back as much as 10 years,” she said.

Southampton County Board of Supervisors Chairman Dr. Alan W. Edwards had previously explained what prompted these FOIA requests that were submitted by Troutman Pepper.

“What’s happened is, the law firm is interviewing people who volunteered, who wanted to talk (about SCPS), and when questions come up about pursuing what these people were complaining about, that’s what the FOIAs’ about,” Edwards said. “The FOIAs were generated by questions that the interviewed people were bringing up.”

Continuing the timeline from the Dec. 20 receipt of the requests, Goodwyn said, “Now, of course, Southampton County Public Schools was closed for Winter Break, but on the eighth of January, Southampton County School Board sent a letter to the FOIA requester acknowledging receipt of the FOIA request and invoking a seven-work-day extension.

“On the eighth, we received an auto-reply from that requester advising that that person was out of the office,” she continued. “On January the 21st, our counsel sent a letter to the Board of Supervisors’ counsel advising them that the production and volume of the FOIA request would interfere with the division’s ability to meet its operational responsibilities and requested to meet to discuss narrowing, clarifying and refining the request.

“Our counsel also informed the Board of Supervisors’ counsel at that time that the cost of supplying those records would be extremely expensive,” she added. “So on January the 28th, the School Board counsel and the Board of Supervisors’ counsel agreed to engage in extensive meetings to discuss the revision of those FOIA requests.”

Goodwyn then moved forward in the timeline to February.

“The Board of Supervisors’ counsel sent our counsel a letter confirming a revised FOIA request as they agreed to do at their Jan. 28 meeting between the two attorneys,” she said. 

She noted that the attorneys for both boards met in February and March to try to narrow down the list of requests.

She highlighted how a public body can make reasonable charges that would cover the cost of searching for, assessing and duplicating records requested via FOIA.

“And the charge for staff time is the average hourly pay of the administrators who have to search, the administrators who have to review and the clerical staff who have to do the copying,” she said. “If a request exceeds $250, then the public body has the right to ask for payment before the FOIA request is fulfilled.

“So what has happened and what Mr. Edwards said is that the Board of Supervisors was filing a complaint, so we did get a petition from Dascher Pasco, who is the attorney for the Board of Supervisors,” Goodwyn said. “So the Board of Supervisors has served a petition to have a hearing about this same FOIA request.”

She said that even though the attorneys for each board were in discussion about how to narrow down and make more affordable the FOIA requests, in March the Board of Supervisors’ counsel requested that SCPS respond to their request within 10 days. 

Goodwyn said the School Board’s counsel acknowledged receipt of that letter and indicated that they would still be willing to meet to discuss the request.

“We have been in communication with their attorney, but as it stands now, the requested cost of that FOIA request that we received from Dascher Pasco is estimated to cost $30,000,” Goodwyn said. “However, we do have a court date, and there will be a hearing to discuss the matter, which is where we are now.”

In his explanation of the lawsuit filed by the Board of Supervisors, Edwards had said, “Basically we just ran out of patience, and our legal team said, ‘Look, they’re not going to do anything. They’re stalling.’ So, we really didn’t want to do this, but that’s the way it is.”