The Williamson County School Board announced last week that they would be putting public records requests in the hands of a contracted agency.
According to Mike Looney, superintendent of the board, the sheer volume of requests over the past year has bogged down many departments, and they need help to get things back on track.
These requests are coming from parents, local media, even school board members. Some people ask about zoning, some about geographic information like maps. Some of the larger requests, though, are asking for emails that mention certain people. One of these requests amounted to around 250,000 emails.
Public records requests can be made by anyone and are free of charge, although hard copies may cost for materials used. The Tennessee Open Records Act requires a response to requests within seven days, but that does not necessarily mean that information will get to the requester that soon. Many requests from 2014 still remain unfulfilled due to the large volume of requests.
Cost for these services is estimated at a few thousand dollars from school board funding.
This issue will be discussed further at the next school board work session on Thursday, Jan. 15 at 6 p.m. in the Carolyn Campbell conference room of the county administrative building, located at 1320 W. Main Street in Franklin.
