Las Vegas NowI-Team: Mom Fights CCSD for Public Records

I-Team: Mom Fights CCSD for Public Records

When a self-proclaimed soccer mom asked the Clark County School District for public records, she never imagined it would take her more than three years to get them.

But Karen Gray is learning with a little patience that you can, as they say, "Fight City Hall" and win. From the time her oldest, who is now 24-years-old, entered first grade, Gray brought her school-related concerns to the district's only elected officials, the school board of trustees.

So in 2006 when the trustees considered delegating their authority to the superintendent, Gray sought public records in search of an explanation. She got them but it took one lawsuit and three years.

"I started with all the trustees, did all their emails," said Gray who insists there is a method to her madness.

"A lot of them are forwards or replies. So they're somewhere in a chain. So I've been trying to track them back to the original sender," she said.

The soccer mom turned education advocate turned litigant sorts through the spoils of a three year fight with the Clark County School District. It's a year's worth of emails from its board of trustees.

"I'm really focused on the transparency and having the public to have the ability to be involved in the process and when they wanted to shoot that down and take that away, I don't know, it's taken over my life," Gray said.

In 2006, Gray opposed a plan to delegate the board's policy making authority to the superintendent. She argued key issues could then be decided behind closed doors.

"He's not subject to the open meeting laws and public hearings."

Though the measure failed, Gray believes the threat remains via a loophole in state law. To pursue a legislative fix, Gray sought to research the policy debate in public records emails to and from the trustees.

"I didn't know when they took place or who emailed them so I just asked for all the emails and figured I'd spend months looking through them. Instead, I spent years trying to get them."

The district attached a price tag in excess of $4,000 to her request. The cost it argued to retrieve, review and redact the public records emails. Convinced state law requires free access, Gray filed suit.

"We believe in open government," said Judy Cox, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"It's all about having access to records which the state of Nevada has declared to be public documents. And not having to pay an exorbitant fee to go in and review those documents," Cox said.

Earlier this year, Judge Susan Johnson ordered the records -- which amounted to some 1500 emails -- released and free of charge. Yet just last week, the parties returned to her courtroom to debate the production. There were some 500 emails withheld by the district as non-records or as privileged communications. Also emails Gray herself exchanged with the trustees failed to materialize.

"Either they are withholding documents or they don't have an adequate system to preserve public records emails. And the law requires that they preserve any document that falls under the definition of a public record, including emails," said Cox.

While both sides await a written decision from the bench, Gray warms her office chair pursuing the research she hoped to begin while her children were still in school.

"This is one where I'm on these emails and they're talking about me," she said.

She is rooted in the idea that a soccer mom should have a say even if the powers that be think it's madness.

"When I started I thought it was just me. Oh, the district doesn't like me, they don't want me to have it, they don't want this legislation. And you know it's three years later and I realize it's not about me, it really is a systemic problem," Gray said.

As a side note, The I-Team recently requested the trustees' emails for calendar year 2008. Despite the recent ruling in Gray's case deeming the emails public records, the request was denied. The district explained that all emails sent to and sent by the trustees are not public records.