By: A newspaper and an open-government watchdog group have sued the Los Alamos School District to obtain documents about the school board president trying to improve her son's grade.
The Los Alamos Monitor and the Foundation for Open Government sued for the documents in June.
"I think it's important that public officials not intimidate their underlings to the benefit of their children or anything else," Bob Johnson, executive director of the foundation, said in the lawsuit.
School board president Louise Janecky said last week that she did not pressure her son's teacher to get him a better grade.
Los Alamos Public Schools Superintendent James Anderson denies the district has violated any open-government laws.
The allegations were first raised at a school board meeting last October.
The next day, Janecky told Monitor reporter Carol Clark that the charge involved her, but called the accusation "a lie," according to the lawsuit.
Janecky said last week in an interview that her son's German teacher, Anita Boshier, offered to change his "D" in exchange for extra credit work.
According to the lawsuit, Boshier sent a letter to the school board explaining her side of the story and the board held a closed-door meeting about the incident Nov. 8.
The suit alleges the district violated state law by closing what should have been a public meeting and refusing to hand over a copy of Boshier's letter.
Boshier has declined to comment on the incident.
Anderson said Boshier's letter is not a public document because it was placed in her personnel file, which is exempt from the Inspection of Public Records Act.
Janecky said the letter contained details about her son's work habits and other private information.
The newspaper and the foundation argue that under state law, the district should provide the letter, but black out confidential information about the student.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here