Jacksonville North Pulaski School District parent given $35,000 price tag for FOIA request

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (KATV) — A Jacksonville North Pulaski School District parent is raising concerns over how the district has handled her FOIA requests.

Kristian St. Clair says the district wants her to pay around $35,000 for documents related to the arrest of former Bayou Meto Elementary janitor Harold Butchart, who was accused of inappropriately touching three young girls last year.

St. Clair is part of the JNPSD Parent Action Coalition, a group focused heavily on the Butchart case and student safety. She says multiple attempts to get files from the district have been met with delays and steep fees.

A series of Freedom of Information Act requests are now raising questions about whether the district is following state law.

On March 17, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office took a report from St. Clair regarding her FOIA requests. To get the files, the district cited fees totaling $35,000, a practice law professor Robert Steinbuch says is illegal.

“The labor of government employees is to do the work of the public and included in the work of the public is responding to FOIA requests,” said Steinbuch of the UALR Bowen School of Law.

“This law has been around for nearly 60 years and yet this is one of the most basic propositions there is: one cannot charge for labor,” he added.

According to the sheriff’s report, St. Clair sent a dozen FOIA requests seeking emails between district accounts and electronic surveillance video. Superintendent Dr. Jeremy Owoh cited Arkansas FOIA law in his response, estimating about $30,000 in labor and redaction costs for non-paper materials.

Steinbuch believes the district is misapplying the law.

“Arkansas FOIA is quite explicit in that it only permits fees for the actual cost of the paper or the toner, but that’s it, no labor,” he said.

On a separate request, Owoh told St. Clair it would cost an estimated $4,000 to locate, review, and prepare the documents. Steinbuch says that even if the requests are extensive, it’s illegal to block access with high fees.

“If this individual sues, instead of being forced to pay this made-up $30,000 sum, she would get the records and her attorneys would get paid for seeking out those records,” Steinbuch said.

St. Clair has also filed a report with the Pulaski County Prosecutor.

The district’s Communications Director says officials are on spring break and will follow up when they return.