OBSTACLES TO EVALUATING AACPS’S ONLINE COURSES

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2020 6:23 PM
To: pia.ombuds@oag.state.md.us
Cc: Kershner, Lisa <lkershner@oag.state.md.us>; Clark, Janice <jclark@oag.state.md.us>
Subject: Public Information Act Complaint Against AACPS

Dear Public Access Ombudsman Kershner:

In the middle of February, weeks before AACPS schools shut down in response to Covid-19, I began seeking basic information about AACPS’s “distance education” course offerings from the AACPS staff responsible for providing those courses. This was in keeping with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advice, which recommended that parents begin asking their local school systems about remote learning options, should they be necessary.

After AACPS staff refused to answer my questions and passed them on to the AACPS PIO—what many journalists and academics have come to call Censorship by PIO—I began to submit a series of PIA requests along two tracks: first, to request information about the accountability mechanisms in place to ensure that AACPS families could access high quality remote learning courses, and second, to understand the mechanism by which the PIO, acting on behalf of the superintendent and Board of Education, instills fear in administrative staff concerning talking directly to community opinion leaders, including the press. From my perspective, if I had been allowed to talk with the staff administering AACPS’s remote learning courses, I would probably have been able to learn in a few minutes what, if any, accountability mechanisms they had in place to ensure students have access to high quality remote learning courses. I might still have ended up submitting a Public Information Act request to the PIO, but the process would have been much more efficient.

The PIO has been hindering and denying my requests in a variety of ways, including delays in responding to me, hiding the names and descriptions of relevant sought performance documents (e.g., by not letting me chat with staff who know which performance data are gathered), claiming that my requests for those performance documents are too vague, claiming that the documents are decisional (see §4-344) and thus exempt from public disclosure, and claiming that my requests for documents concerning one of his job responsibilities, what I and many others categorized as “censorship by PIO,” are “simply a fishing expedition” that would “grind the work of an agency to a halt” and thus conflict with the purpose of the Public Information Act.

Please ask the PIO to provide the documents I requested under Maryland’s Public Information Act. To the extent that the PIO is making coherent exemption claims, the two primary ones that currently appear to be on the table are that 1) the various documents/reports to evaluate the performance of distance learning courses are “decisional” and thus exempt under §4-344, and 2) that it is not in the public interest for him to release certain of his recent communications to AACPS staff concerning his written job responsibility to provide “a cohesive message externally through the implementation of more comprehensive and inclusive means of communication internally.” I discuss the merits of the latter exemption claim in depth in my May 28, 2020 email below. For broader thoughtful discussions of why it is so important for the public to understand such censorship mechanisms at AACPS, see LoMonte, Frank, Putting the ‘Public’ Back into Public Employment: A Roadmap for Challenging Prior Restraints That Prohibit Government Employees from Speaking to the News Media, 68 Kan. L. Rev. 1 (2019), and Carlson, C. S., & Roy, M., Mediated Access: Education Writers’ Perceptions of Public Information Officers’ Media Control Efforts, Education Writers Association, 2014. These writers support my argument that censorship by PIO is anti-democratic, violates the purpose of government right-to-know laws, and, as argued by Professor Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, may even violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Clearly, the PIO has a rational incentive not only to hide such censorship related documents from public disclosure but to do so averse to the public interest.

Please read my May 28, 2020 email to the AACPS PIO below.

Sincerely,

–J.H. Snider

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 2020 3:21 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Mosier:

With regard to 1) to 4) in your May 27, 2020 response to my previous Public Information Act requests, it is not credible that you have no copies on your computer of earlier versions of The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan, which your job description requires you to periodically submit to the superintendent. You appear to be arguing that you draft that plan—the topmost item in your job description—merely for your own solipsistic benefit. But that would be such a bad management practice for such a high level and influential position as yours that I don’t find it credible. Surely you have a copy on one of your computers of the earlier versions of this document that you have submitted to your superiors. Note that I’m not asserting that AACPS backs up your correspondence to the cloud, as AACPS designed that backup systems to skirt Maryland’s right-to-know laws, especially when a requester seeks sensitive or controversial information.

With regard to 5), I agree that 5) is not directly part of your general job description. It is part of The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan, which is mandated by your general job description. As such, it is part of the promises you have made to the superintendent as part of fulfilling your general job description. I understand how much you hate the idea of providing this type of potentially sensitive and controversial information to the public. And I understand that for the same reason the superintendent would prefer that such information not be publicly disclosed. But preventing public access to potentially sensitive and controversial information is not only not an officially recognized exemption under Maryland’s Public Information Act; it is the highest purpose of Maryland’s Public Information Act.

As for the time required to gather such information from your personal email file for the months between July 1, 2019 and May 27, 2020, I doubt very much that it would entail the type of effort you describe. My request only covers your job commitment to communicating “a cohesive message externally through the implementation of more comprehensive and inclusive means of communication internally.” Accordingly, I am only interested in communications from your office to AACPS employees and AACPS contractors outside your office, the Communications Office. I am also not interested in communications exclusively to your superior, the superintendent. In short, I am not requesting communications to people who report to you as their superior, who you report to as your superior, and people who aren’t directly (as AACPS employees) or indirectly (as AACPS contractors) paid by AACPS. Examples of the latter communications include the already public and widely distributed press releases and web pages your office releases in great abundance. The balance of your communications that I am seeking is a tiny fraction of your communications during any school year, which is reflected by the fact that your commitment to providing “a cohesive message externally through the implementation of more comprehensive and inclusive means of communication internally” represents only a tiny fraction of your overall communications plan (see 1) to 4) above). Given the exceptionality of such communications, I’m confident that you remember what those communications were as part of fulfilling your own promised communications plan during the current school year.

My original and continuing reason for requesting this information has been to better understand how you established the culture of censorship by PIO at AACPS. As you know, when I’ve sought to talk to AACPS experts to understand what is happening at AACPS with regard to some activity of vital public interest, they have invariably in recent years told me to request all information via your office, which I have often found to be an intimidating and unproductive nightmare. My most recent series of PIA request to your office, including for the communications requested in 5), all stemmed from my difficulty beginning in mid-February 2020—weeks before the AACPS school closures and in keeping with CDC guidance—to chat with AACPS distance education staff about how distance education was working at AACPS. They all refused to chat with me and insisted I seek any information about distance education at AACPS via your office, which, among other problems, has very little expertise on the subject. I have been interested in finding out how you have educated such employees to avoid talking to the press, as AACPS has no formal policies or regulations banning such communications.

With regard to your claim that my PIA request is not in the public interest, the problem of censorship by PIO has become of the gravest concern to highly regarded journalistic organizations and academics because of the harm it is doing to democratic transparency and accountability. Partly because of my long-time experience with your office, my nonprofit, iSolon.org, signed on to a Society of Professional Journalists letter to Congress and U.S. President seeking to rein in such government practices because of their harm to democracy. The Capital in an editorial also endorsed that letter. For a scholarly overview of the general problem of censorship by PIO as practiced by government entities such as AACPS, I’d highly recommend: LoMonte, Frank, Putting the ‘Public’ Back into Public Employment: A Roadmap for Challenging Prior Restraints That Prohibit Government Employees from Speaking to the News Media, 68 Kan. L. Rev. 1 (2019). For an SPJ and Education Writers Association report addressing this scourge in K-12 public schools, see Carlson, C. S., & Roy, M., Mediated Access: Education Writers’ Perceptions of Public Information Officers’ Media Control Efforts, Education Writers Association, 2014. As for an example of the highly consequential disasters that can result from such censorship and secrecy, I’d point to AACPS’s rollout of remote learning options this spring for more than 85,000 students and tens of thousands of families. Needless to say, in the many press releases and quotes you issued about AACPS’s response to the pandemic, none mentioned the ways AACPS was not acting to fulfill its core mission of placing its students’ interests first. I have no doubt that if AACPS families were fairly polled about the potential dangers of censorship by your office, they would overwhelmingly support your releasing the legally required and relevant emails you readily have on your personal computers, as described above.

If I don’t receive a satisfactory response to this PIA request by COB next Monday, I will file a complaint with Maryland’s Public Information Act Ombudsman.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2020 7:58 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking:

The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2019. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2018. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2017. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2016. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
Your Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of May 27, 2020 states as part of your office’s job description: “We have ongoing opportunities to:… communicate a cohesive message externally through the implementation of more comprehensive and inclusive means of communication internally.” I request copies of such “comprehensive and inclusive means of communications internally”—that is, the fulfillment of that part of your job description–for FY2020 up until the time this Public Information Act request is fulfilled.

With regard to items 1 through 4, as I clearly stated in my May 27, 2020, response to you, the Communications Office’s Strategic Communications Plan is a living document that is updated periodically throughout the year. Updates replace previous versions on an ongoing basis. Thus, as should have been clear from my prior response, the 2019-2020 version you were provided replaced the previous version. Therefore, no documents exist to satisfy those items in your request.

With regard to Item 5, I want to state for the record that the section you quote in your request is not, as you erroneously state, part of any job description. It is taken from the “Opportunities & Strategies” section of the Communication Office’s Strategic Communications Plan.

That said, Item 5 in your request essentially asks for a detailing of every conversation I have had and every email of which I have been a party regarding the communication of any issue throughout Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Such an endeavor is simply a fishing expedition on your part as you seem to believe that every conversation – verbal or written – about any type of communication effort remains stored on file. The research and compilation required to even begin to satisfy this item in your request would entail hundreds if not thousands of hours of exhaustive work – likely requiring the hiring of additional staff – that would entail poring over my emails and files, but those of countless other Anne Arundel County Public Schools employees for some mention of even the smallest of intended communications. With all due respect, this is not the purpose of the Act. It is without question designed to provide the public access to public documents. It is not, however, designed to allow a requestor to grind the work of an agency to a halt.

Especially at this time, when our school system and governmental agencies across the nation are dealing with a global pandemic, I find that the search for these documents is, in fact, contrary to the public interest in that I believe the public would far rather have the time and efforts of its public servants spent on tasks related to the common good. As such, I am denying this portion of your request under §4-343.

In the event you disagree with any determination regarding this Maryland Public Information Act request, you have the right to seek review or remedy, in accordance with GP §4-1B-01 through §4-1B-04, with Maryland Public Access Ombudsman Lisa Kershner at lkershner@oag.state.md.us, (410) 576-7037, or by mail at the Office of the Attorney General, 200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202. Under GP §4-362, you also have the right to file a complaint in Circuit Court requesting a review of this decision.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2020 1:02 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of AACPS. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the following information concerning your fulfillment of your job requirements:

The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2019. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2018. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2017. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
The Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of July 1, 2016. Included in my May 13, 2020 Public Information Act request to you.
Your Anne Arundel County Strategic Communications Plan as of May 27, 2020 states as part of your office’s job description: “We have ongoing opportunities to:… communicate a cohesive message externally through the implementation of more comprehensive and inclusive means of communication internally.” I request copies of such “comprehensive and inclusive means of communications internally”—that is, the fulfillment of that part of your job description–for FY2020 up until the time this Public Information Act request is fulfilled.

Please email me all the requested documents as an email attachment.

If you claim that it will take more than two hours to fulfill my Public Information Act request, please break down the time to fulfill it for each of my separate 1), 2), 3), 4), and 5) sub-requests that constitute this Public Information Act request. Every document I have requested should be readily available on at least one of your own computers. It would not be plausible that you didn’t both keep a copy of these documents and keep them readily available on one of your computers for your own use.

If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information.

Your prompt and good faith fulfillment of this Public Information Act request would be not only appreciated by me but also consistent with the spirit of Maryland’s Public Information Act.

Over the years your office has consistently been in violation of GP § 4-203(b), which specifies the 10- and 30-day deadlines under Maryland’s Public Information Act. For your convenience, I’m copying a plain English summary of GP § 4-203(b) from Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General:

Under GP § 4-203(b)(1), if a custodian determines that a record is responsive to a request and open to inspection, the custodian must produce the record “immediately” after receipt of the written request. An additional reasonable period “not to exceed 30 days” is available only where the additional period of time is required to retrieve the records and assess their status under the PIA. A custodian should not, however, wait the full 30 days to allow or deny access to a record if that amount of time is not needed to respond.

If access is to be granted, the record should be produced for inspection and copying promptly after the written request is evaluated. If it will take more than 10 working days to produce the requested records, the custodian must notify the requester, in writing or by email, of that fact. GP § 4-203(b)(2). The notification must be sent within the same 10-day time period and must indicate the amount of time needed to respond, the reason for the delay, and an estimate of the range of fees that may be charged.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2020 8:43 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information related communications plans in Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

The most current version of the Communications Office’s Strategic Communications Plan is attached to this communication. Please note that this is a living document that is updated periodically throughout the year. Updates replace previous versions on an ongoing basis.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2020 9:31 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: ‘Kelly, Stephanie’ <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Messrs. Mosier, Kelly, and Malone:

Thank you for choosing to comply with my Maryland Public Information Act request within the 30-day deadline.

A few observations based on what you provided:

The invoice descriptions provided by the vendors are extraordinarily vague and, in some cases, stylistically inconsistent in their contents. It’s hard to believe that reputable companies such as those AACPS is dealing with would provide such awful invoice descriptions, so please confirm that those are in fact the invoice descriptions provided by the vendors.

Since there are no payments to the Anne Arundel Community College, I infer that all the courses AACPS students take from AACC, including AACC’s dual, online, and hybrid courses for AACPS students, are paid by the students rather than AACPS.

Since there are no payments to MSDE, I infer that all the courses AACPS students take from MSDE are paid by either MSDE or the students rather than AACPS.

If any of these inferences I have made from the information you provided is incorrect, please let me know.

Alas, I sought the invoices for FY2019 and FY2020, not FY2020 and FY2021, which is what I mistakenly requested in my April 28, 2020 Maryland Public Information Act request to you. Despite the error in my wording (as you correctly note, an invoice cannot be dated prior to the beginning of a fiscal year, which is why there are currently no invoices for FY2021), I would request that you provide the requested invoices for FY2019 so that I have one full year of invoices. If I don’t hear back from you by the end of next Tuesday, I will submit a follow-up Public Information Act request to correct my error.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2020 4:31 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Cc: Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking about certain vendor invoices paid in Fiscal Year 2020 and Fiscal Year 2021.

A document with vendor invoices paid to date in Fiscal Year 2020 is attached to this communication. Fiscal Year 2021 does not begin until July 1, 2020. As such, no invoices have been paid to date for FY2021.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Wednesday, May 13, 2020 2:55 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of AACPS. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Mr. Mosier:

According to your job description as AACPS “Chief Communications Officer” (see attached document), your first responsibility is to be “Responsible for developing, implementing and monitoring comprehensive communication plans, both internally and externally, for the Board of Education, Superintendent of Schools, and the school system’s departments and offices.”

Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the following information concerning your fulfillment of your job requirements:

The plans during FY2020 that constitute the “comprehensive communication plans” mandated in your job description.
The plans during FY2019 that constitute the “comprehensive communication plans” mandated in your job description.
The plans during FY2018 that constitute the “comprehensive communication plans” mandated in your job description.
The plans during FY2017 that constitute the “comprehensive communication plans” mandated in your job description.
The plans during FY2016 that constitute the “comprehensive communication plans” mandated in your job description.

Please email me all the requested documents as an email attachment.

If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information.

Your prompt and good faith fulfillment of this Public Information Act request would be not only appreciated by me but also consistent with the spirit of Maryland’s Public Information Act.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2020 2:55 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of AACPS. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Thank you for clarifying in response to my Feb. 28, 2020 and March 28, 2020 Public Information Act requests that the only performance reporting AACPS Instructional Technology provides concerning its operations is an online course count to the Maryland State Department of Education. It would have been much more convenient and cost-effective for everyone concerned if you had allowed me to merely ask about the available performance reports directly to Instructional Technology staff. Alas, Online Campus Instructional Technology Specialist Patrick Malone and Instructional Technology Senior Manager Stepahanie Kelly both insisted that any discussion concerning their reporting would have to be funneled through your office.

Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the following information:

The list of invoices from the various vendors paid under the “Contractual Services” Approved Budget FY2020 $125,000 line item of Instructional Technology’s budget for FY2020. See page 179 of FY2020 Approved Operating & Capital Budgets.
The list of invoices from the various vendors paid under the “Contractual Services” Superintendent’s Recommended FY2021 $125,000 line item of Instructional Technology’s budget for FY2021. See page 167 of the Board of Education’s FY2021 Operating and Capital Budgets. The FY2021 documents should be current as of the date this Public Information Act request is fulfilled.

Please email me all the requested documents as an email attachment.

If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information.

I’m cc’ing Patrick Malone and Stephanie Kelly. Since they will have to provide and approve the requested information before passing it along to you, I hope this will speed the process along.

Please note that over the years your office has consistently been in violation of GP § 4-203(b). For your convenience, I’m copying a plain English summary of it from Maryland’s Office of the Attorney General:

Needless to say, this is only one of the many provisions of Maryland’s Public Information Act your office has routinely violated.

It would have saved all of us the hassle of my March 28, 2020 Public Information Act request if you had simply and explicitly responded that you had no responses to this part of my February 28, 2020 Public Information Act request: “I request the following information:… 2) AACPS’s reporting requirements from Patrick Malone for the Distance Learning program he runs on behalf of AACPS. This may be part of Instructional Technology’s report to AACPS…. 4) The reports mentioned in 2) and 3) above for FY2017 through FY2020.”

Your prompt and good faith fulfillment of this Public Information Act request would be greatly appreciated. It would also be consistent with the spirit of Maryland’s Public Information Act.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 28, 2020 12:54 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information about budget requests by AACPS employees Stephanie Kelly and Patrick Malone.

Departmental budget requests provide information for purposes of deliberation by the Superintendent of Schools in the formulation of his budget recommendation to the Board of Education. As such, they are not disclosable under §4-344.

However, the Superintendent’s budget recommendation to the Board, the Board’s approved request to the County Executive, and the Board’s adopted budget are public documents and available on our website here. The budget for online courses is contained in the Contracted Services line of the Instructional Technology budget.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 21, 2020 12:51 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’

Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking “written documentation concerning AACPS’s well known policy among AACPS administrative employees prohibiting them from speaking publicly about AACPS interests; that is, that all requests from the public for such information must be routed via your office.”

You and I have discussed this matter several times over the last 14 years but given that you have filed an official request under the Act, I will respond to it yet again here.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools has no policy prohibiting AACPS administrative employees from speaking publicly about AACPS interests. One only needs to look at any of the variety of outlets that cover AACPS to know that.

The AACPS Communications Office does function as the primary liaison for media outlets and the public both in terms of providing answers to questions and disseminating information. In general, multi-faceted requests for information are routed to my office so they can be logged and tracked to ensure timely responses.

Additionally, we have employees who may not be comfortable talking with members of the media or speaking others in a variety of circumstances. Our office assists with the fulfillment of requests for information in those instances, as well.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2020 3:53 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of AACPS. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request written documentation concerning AACPS’s well known policy among AACPS administrative employees prohibiting them from speaking publicly about AACPS interests; that is, that all requests from the public for such information must be routed via your office.

I read the AACPS Employee Handbook and found nothing that mandates the above policy. If I have misread that Handbook, please cite the relevant passage that mandates the above policy.

I do not have access to non-disclosure documents AACPS employees may have signed as part of their employment contract with AACPS. If such clauses exist, please email me a copy of the last such signed employee contract.

Please email me all the requested documents as an email attachment.

If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information.

Your prompt and good faith fulfillment of this Public Information Act request would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 2:51 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: ‘Kelly, Stephanie’ <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Mosier:

I look forward to Ms. Kelly’s and Mr. Malone’s timely and good faith response to my Public Information Act request via your office.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2020 2:42 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Cc: Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information related to budget information for online courses offered by Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

This request has been forwarded to the appropriate staff, and pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act, we will endeavor to provide that information which is public within 30 days of your request. Please note that due to limited staff availability due to issues associated with the coronavirus pandemic, fulfillment of your request may take longer than 30 days. Please note that the Act does not require an agency to create new documents to satisfy a request.

As has been the case with all of your prior requests, fulfillment of this request will come from my office. There is no need for you to continue to contact Ms. Kelly or Mr. Malone.

As you may be aware, §4-206 (b) allows a custodian to “charge a reasonable fee for search for, preparation of, and reproduction of a public record.” Under the provisions of the Act, the first two hours of labor would be provided free of charge. You would be responsible for reimbursing Anne Arundel County Public Schools for the labor required to complete all other research and compilation of documents.

If we determine that there will be a charge to you, we will notify you before proceeding with your request.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2020 12:35 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of AACPS. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the following information:

AACPS Online Campus Instructional Technology Specialist Patrick Malone’s budget requests and accompanying budgetary notes to his superior, Stephanie Kelly, for FY2019, FY2020, and FY2021. The FY2021 documents should be current as of the date this Public Information Act request is fulfilled.
AACPS Instructional Technology Senior Manager Stepahanie Kelly’s budget requests and accompanying budgetary notes to her superiors for FY2019, FY2020, and FY2021. The FY2021 documents should be current as of the date this Public Information Act request is fulfilled.

Please email me all the requested documents as an email attachment.

If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information.

I’m cc’ing Patrick Malone and Stephanie Kelly. Since they will have to provide and approve the requested information before passing it along to you, I hope this will speed the process along.

Your good faith fulfillment of this Public Information Act request would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 4:34 PM
To: ‘Kelly, Stephanie’ <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Cc: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Ms. Kelly and Mr. Malone:

Please read my comments below, marked in red, to confirm that you have not overlooked providing any requested documents in response to my Public Information Act request. The PIA mandated 30-day deadline to respond to my request is this Friday.

AACPS Online Campus Instructional Technology Specialist’s Patrick Malone’s most recent official job description.
Got it.
AACPS’s reporting requirements from Patrick Malone for the Distance Learning program he runs on behalf of AACPS. This may be part of Instructional Technology’s report to AACPS.
- Patrick Malone’s job descriptions says he is to help in the “Coordination of data, and preparation of reports” for the “the MVLO Coordinator and AACPS.” But based on the documents sent to me, the only report he provides is the AACPS MFR, which provides aggregate student enrollment data for each offered course broken down by number of original and credit recovery students. Unless you tell me otherwise, it is reasonable from your response for me to infer that that is the only data Mr. Malone provides to AACPS and MSDE concerning the program he operates. In fact, I find that inference implausible because it would be impossible for him to manage his operation effectively, and for Stephanie Kelly and her superiors to oversee AACPS’s Distance Education effectively, with such skimpy data and reporting. At a minimum, I would expect that Instructional Technology (i.e., Messrs. Kelly and Malone) would report the budget vs. actual expenditures of the students accepted to take online courses.
- Why is it that Mr. Malone reported not a single AACPS student taking an Anne Arundel Community College approved “online course”? I infer from the lack of requested information that no AACPS student took such a course even though the document “AACPS Approved Online Courses” says it approves such courses. If that inference is incorrect because you did not provide the requested information, please provide the missing information.
- Based on the information provided, AACPS has no written explanation why not all students approved by their guidance counselor and principal to take an online course are not in fact allowed to take an online class. If that inference is incorrect, please let me know why. The criteria for guidance counselors and principals to make decisions as to which students will not qualify are clearly stated, but not the criteria that AACPS central administration, that is, Instructional Technology (Messrs. Kelly and Malone), have used to prioritize which students will be allowed to take online courses. The only specified criteria are that seniors will be given priority over upperclassmen who will be given priority over middle schoolers but not who, within those groups, has been given priority. No budget limitation on number of students allowed to take online courses was provided. But I would surely imagine such a budget constraint exists, which would seem to be confirmed by the remarkably consistent number of students who take online courses from semester to semester.
- Based on the information provided, I infer that no information is gathered and reported about how many students withdraw from online courses after the initial five-day period when the student becomes responsible for all course-related charges. Again, if this information is wrong, please supply the missing information.
- Based on the information provided, I infer that no definition is provided for the specific criteria “credit recovery” students must meet to be classified as credit recovery. Nor is it specified whether they have higher or lower priority than online original credit students to qualify for online courses. If written guidance exists regarding these resource allocation decisions, please provide it.
The State of Maryland’s reporting requirements from Patrick Malone for the Distance Learning program he runs on behalf of AACPS. This may be part of Instructional Technology’s report to the State of Maryland.
- See my comments to 2) above. Based on what AACPS Instructional Technology (Messrs. Kelly and Malone) provided, the only written guidance and reporting requirements provided by MSDE is the AACPS MFR included in Messrs. Kelly and Malone’s response to my Public Information Act request. Please correct me if that inference is incorrect. And, if so, please email me the missing documentation.
The reports mentioned in 2) and 3) above for FY2017 through FY2020.
- See my comments to 2) and 3) above.
The currently operative written guidance MSDE’s Maryland Virtual Learning Opportunities Program (MVLO) has provided to AACPS’s Distance Learning program.
- See my comments to 2), 3), and 4) above.
The Student Participation Form on the Distance Learning website (on Monday, I filled out the website form to receive this document but have received nothing to date).
Got it.
The current AACPS Approved Courses, including pricing, on the Distance Learning website (as of Monday, the document provided online was three years out of date).
Got it.

In my original written request to you more than a month ago—followed up with multiple phone call voice mail messages—I asked for “a list of all the written rules, including policies and regulations, pertaining to AACPS’s distance learning options.” These rules are scattered in various written AACPS and MSDE policies and regulations. For the record, I would like to note that neither of you provided me this information.

If Bob Mosier or any other AACPS official provided you with a written rule stating that certain information requests to any AACPS official or subject matter expert must be handled by Mr. Mosier’s office, please email it to me. As noted in my March 9 email to Mr. Mosier (see below), he has often cited such a rule but never been able or willing to show me where it exists in writing. Mr. Mosier, as I requested in my March 9 email to you, please email me a copy of the rule you used to prevent Mssrs. Kelly and Malone from responding to my initially informal request for basic information about AACPS’s Distance Education program.

Sincerely,

–J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2020 8:28 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information related distance learning courses in Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

Documents responsive to your request are attached to this communication.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Monday, March 9, 2020 11:42 AM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>; ‘Kelly, Stephanie’ <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Information requests

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Of course, I assumed that Patrick and Stephanie would forward my correspondence with them to you, as they would face severe penalties if they didn’t. And yes, as you note, AACPS staff have a track record of engaging in such practices in response to your demands. But I would like to remind them and you that they, not you, will be responsible for actually gathering the information I requested, as they are the subject matter experts, not you. And if you fail to provide all the requested information, you would blame them rather than take responsibility yourself, claiming that you were merely passing along the information they provided. They cannot and should not be able to pass the buck entirely to you, especially when AACPS does not appear to have a written rule endorsing that you should be able to endlessly delay and censor the information that expert staff have at their fingertips. If you have such a written rule—endorsed by the Board of Education or otherwise—please email it to me. In the past, you have not been able to produce the claimed written rule. In any case, the sentence you wrote “I am working on fulfillment….” should be amended to more accurately reflect the information flows “We are working on fulfillment….”

I look forward to your good faith fulfillment of my information request.

Sincerely,

–J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Monday, March 9, 2020 5:51 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Cc: Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>; Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>
Subject: Information requests

Mr. Snider,

We have respectfully asked repeatedly for you to make information requests through my office. Mr. Malone and Ms. Kelly will simply forward those to me.

I respectfully ask you yet again to send requests to me. I am working on fulfillment of your current Public Information Act request at this time.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Monday, March 9, 2020 1:22 AM
To: ‘Kelly, Stephanie’ <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>; ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: my requests for information concerning AACPS Distance Learning documents

Dear Stephanie and Patrick:

Last Friday I left a voice message for Patrick requesting that he email me the requested documents piecemeal rather than all at once on a delayed basis. In particular, I requested a copy of your recent reports to your superiors at AACPS concerning your distance learning activities. I also once again left Patrick with my contact information. Since I didn’t get through to Patrick, I followed up with a call to Stephanie.

Stephanie, your assistant said you weren’t in and recommended I email you, so that is what I’m doing now. As I requested of Patrick, please email me the portion of my request that you have readily available, including your recent reports to AACPS concerning your activities. If you’d like to discuss my request further, please either call or email me.

The journalism community is very upset about the type of “Censorship by PIO” that AACPS has been exhibiting in handling my now two-week old request to you for basic information that should already be posted online about what in recent months has become a vital, high profile public issue. Concerning censorship by PIO, see this letter to Congress from the Society of Professional Journalists that my non-profit, iSolon, signed on last fall. The letter, which the Capital endorsed in an editorial, focuses on censorship by PIO at the federal level of government. The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, which is cited in the letter, has focused on censorship by PIO at the local level.

I look forward to your at least partially fulfilling my request in the next few days.

Sincerely,

–J.H. Snider

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 8:18 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>; ‘Kelly, Stephanie’ <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Regarding your comment that I “expect an instantaneous response,” I submitted my PIA request only after waiting five days and getting no response to my multiple previous requests. Moreover, much of the information I requested should already have been online, especially for an agency involved with the provision of online services. The fact is, there are many requesters to which you provide instantaneous information and don’t make them go through the hassle and delay of a PIA request. I should never have been forced to make a PIA request to get basic information from an AACPS employee.

Sincerely,

–J.H. Snider

From: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 29, 2020 3:02 PM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Cc: Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>; Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Public Information Act Request

February 29, 2020

Dear Mr. Snider:

This communication is in response to your request under the Public Information Act, Annotated Code of Maryland, General Provisions Article (GP) § 4-101, et seq., seeking information related distance learning courses in Anne Arundel County Public Schools.

This request has been forwarded to the appropriate staff, and pursuant to the Maryland Public Information Act, we will provide that information which is public within 30 days of the February 28, 2020, receipt of your request, and certainly sooner if it is readily available. Please note that the Act does not require an agency to create new documents to satisfy a request.

I appreciate that you contacted Mr. Malone and he did, in fact, forward your request to me. I know well from your plethora of requests over the last 14 years I have been in this position that you expect an instantaneous response. Unfortunately, that is not always possible given the many other duties that AACPS employees have during the course of any given day. I apologize if the fact that I was tending to other duties and had not yet had the opportunity to gather the information to respond to you caused you any inconvenience.

As you did, I have copied Mr. Malone and Ms. Kelly on this response so that they are aware of it.

Since you have compiled all of the information you seek into this single request, I will aggregate the information responsive to it and deliver it to you in a single response. As you are aware, §4-206 (b) allows a custodian to “charge a reasonable fee for search for, preparation of, and reproduction of a public record.” Under the provisions of the Act, the first two hours of labor would be provided free of charge. You would be responsible for reimbursing Anne Arundel County Public Schools for the labor required to complete all other research and compilation of documents.

If we determine that there will be a charge to you, we will notify you before proceeding with your request.

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me at 410-222-5312 or by email at rmosier@aacps.org.

Sincerely,

Bob Mosier
Chief Communications Officer
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
Phone: 410-222-5312
Web: www.aacps.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aacps
Twitter: @AACountySchools
Instagram: AACountySchools

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Friday, February 28, 2020 3:13 PM
To: Mosier, Bob <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Cc: Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>; Kelly, Stephanie <MSKELLY@AACPS.org>
Subject: Public Information Act Request

Dear Mr. Mosier:

Under the Maryland Public Information Act, State Government Article (SG) §§ 10-611, et seq., I request the following information:

AACPS Online Campus Instructional Technology Specialist’s Patrick Malone’s most recent official job description.
AACPS’s reporting requirements from Patrick Malone for the Distance Learning program he runs on behalf of AACPS. This may be part of Instructional Technology’s report to AACPS.
The State of Maryland’s reporting requirements from Patrick Malone for the Distance Learning program he runs on behalf of AACPS. This may be part of Instructional Technology’s report to the State of Maryland.
The reports mentioned in 2) and 3) above for FY2017 through FY2020.
The currently operative written guidance MSDE’s Maryland Virtual Learning Opportunities Program (MVLO) has provided to AACPS’s Distance Learning program.
The Student Participation Form on the Distance Learning website (on Monday, I filled out the website form to receive this document but have received nothing to date).
The current AACPS Approved Courses, including pricing, on the Distance Learning website (as of Monday, the document provided online was three years out of date).

Please email me all the requested documents as an email attachment.

If you deny any part of this request, please cite each specific Public Information Act exemption that justifies your denial of the information.

I originally requested items 2) and 3) directly from Patrick Malone on Feb. 23 (copied below). He subsequently twice asked you to fulfill my request, and, as instructed by Mr. Malone in a telephone conversation with him, I followed up with an informal email to you yesterday (copied below). Please set the Maryland Public Information Act clock for items 2) and 3) from my initial request on Feb. 23.

I’m cc’ing Patrick Malone and Stephanie Kelly, Patrick’s boss. Since they will have to provide and approve the requested information before passing it along to you, I hope this will speed the process along. Hopefully, you can fulfill this request by the end of the day next Monday. As for gathering and emailing the documents, that should take only a few minutes.

Your good faith fulfillment of this Public Information Act request would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

J.H. Snider, Editor
eLighthouse

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Thursday, February 27, 2020 4:12 PM
To: ‘Mosier, Bob’ <RMOSIER@AACPS.org>
Subject: Patrick Malone’s requests to you

Hi Bob—

Since Monday, Patrick says he has contacted you twice about providing me with the information requested below. Please let me know your intent in providing it.

Sincerely,

–Jim Snider

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 3:04 PM
To: ‘Malone, Patrick J’ <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: RE: Please email me a list of all the written rules pertaining to AACPS’s distance learning options

Hi Patrick—

As noted below, you are listed in various AACPS publications as the contact person for distance learning.

Bob will just have to get the requested information from you, so going through Bob should be a waste of not only my time but AACPS’s resources.

Please email me the written guidance you provide to parents when they ask how to best utilize AACPS distant learning resources.

Thank you in advance.

Sincerely,

–Jim Snider

From: Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Sent: Monday, February 24, 2020 11:13 AM
To: ‘J.H. Snider’
Subject: RE: Please email me a list of all the written rules pertaining to AACPS’s distance learning options

Jim,

For a request of this type please contact Bob Mosier at RMOSIER@AACPS.org

Patrick J. Malone
Online Campus Specialist
Office of Instructional Technology
Anne Arundel County Public Schools
P-410-721-8353
F-410-721-8369

From: ‘J.H. Snider’
Sent: Sunday, February 23, 2020 9:54 PM
To: Malone, Patrick J <PMALONE@AACPS.org>
Subject: Please email me a list of all the written rules pertaining to AACPS’s distance learning options

CAUTION: This email originated from outside of AACPS. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.

Hi Patrick—

Please email me a list of all the written rules, including policies and regulations, pertaining to AACPS’s distance learning options, as briefly described on AACPS’s Distance Learning web page.

I am writing to you because AACPS lists you as its contact to request this information.

Sincerely,

–Jim Snider

OBSTACLES TO EVALUATING AACPS’S ONLINE COURSES

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