$311 to say ‘no’ to request for D304 enrollment

Rich Hayhurst has collected data for about 10 years on how many students are enrolled in Geneva public schools. Hayhurst, who has criticized the district’s spending, uses the enrollment numbers to figure how much the district is spending per pupil.

Sept. 14 he fired off an email to Donna Oberg, Geneva 304’s assistant superintendent for business services: “Hi Donna (Oberg), Can you tell me what the enrollment is this year and how that compares to last year. Thanks, Rich.”But the school district has yet to tell him how many bodies are in the classrooms.And officials spent $311 to handle his request.Information#146;s priceThe district routinely reports the time it takes to fulfill a request for information, and the value of that time. A memo presented to the board says it took 2frac12; hours of staff time, total cost $178.55, and 3#8531; hours of the attorney#146;s time, total $627.However, the memo was wrong, said Kelley Munch, the district#146;s communications coordinator and one of its two designated, state-certified Freedom of Information Act officers. The other FOIA officer is Superintendent Kent Mutchler. The lawyer bill was for review of three requests Hayhurst made. The lawyer spent only three-quarters of an hour on the enrollment request, Munch said, at a total of $133. The district has a lawyer review every denial of information, she said, to make sure it complies with the state#146;s FOIA law.As for the staff time, Munch said that includes the time the employees#146; spent logging the receipt of the request, discussing what documents might supply the information, compiling an answer, discussing that answer with the district#146;s attorney, sending the answer and writing the memo for the board.The information was denied because the district does not have an official 2011 enrollment report yet. Why no numbers?School has been in session since Aug. 24. District officials know, informally, how many children are attending. But they won#146;t know officially until the Illinois State Board of Education compiles its fall enrollment report, which has been delayed this year until Oct. 15. Normally, the state compiles data as of Sept. 30.And the district doesn#146;t send information to the state, Mutchler said; the state pulls the data out of the school#146;s computer system, which is connected to the state#146;s Student Information System. #147;We don#146;t even know it (the official count) ourselves,#148; he said.The district will obtain the official enrollment numbers off the state#146;s website, he said.Hayhurst said he would have been happy with preliminary numbers, understanding official ones were coming later. So why didn#146;t the district tell him those?#147;Because you have to give accurate information,#148; Mutchler said. #147;We don#146;t want misinformation out there. ... We begin the numbers with the official enrollment.#148;Hayhurst doesn#146;t think he should be cited as a reason for the expense. #147;I think that should be attributed to educating themselves in the Freedom of Information Act,#148; he said. #147; ... It should not be attributed to my very simple request.#148;