Radnor School District releases Right-to-Know documents
February 12, 2009 Open records | Radnor Twp
By Sam Strike
Main Line Suburban Life
The Radnor Township School District has released two sets of documents that it has maintained for nearly two years were not public records.
The documents were released to the Main Line Suburban Life following a Right to Know request it filed last month under the state’s new open records law. It received the documents in the mail today.
A copy was also sent to Newtown Square resident Judy Sherry, who has been embroiled in a Right to Know petition with the district for nearly two years in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.
In the summer of 2007, after her Right to Know request was denied by the school district, Sherry filed a petition with the court over an in-house compilation of collected administrative-related data from other area school districts and an administrative-compensation report crafted by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
Sherry argued that the former influenced the latest administrator’s salary and benefits agreement and that the latter directly resulted in the increase in two district administrators’ salaries in 2007.
Michael V. Puppio, solicitor for the Radnor school board said today that he “reviewed the entirety of the new law and believe it was appropriate that those documents be provided.”
When asked what specific change in Pennsylvania’s open records law caused that decision, he said, “Part of that response could have an impact on the pending Sherry litigation, and therefore that’s not a specific matter I would comment on.”
But with the documents released, is the Sherry case ostensibly over?
“I anticipate at the next [school] board meeting this case will be finalized,” said Daniel Sherry, Jr., one of Sherry’s attorneys.
Main Line Suburban Life
The Radnor Township School District has released two sets of documents that it has maintained for nearly two years were not public records.
The documents were released to the Main Line Suburban Life following a Right to Know request it filed last month under the state’s new open records law. It received the documents in the mail today.
A copy was also sent to Newtown Square resident Judy Sherry, who has been embroiled in a Right to Know petition with the district for nearly two years in the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas.
In the summer of 2007, after her Right to Know request was denied by the school district, Sherry filed a petition with the court over an in-house compilation of collected administrative-related data from other area school districts and an administrative-compensation report crafted by the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.
Sherry argued that the former influenced the latest administrator’s salary and benefits agreement and that the latter directly resulted in the increase in two district administrators’ salaries in 2007.
Michael V. Puppio, solicitor for the Radnor school board said today that he “reviewed the entirety of the new law and believe it was appropriate that those documents be provided.”
When asked what specific change in Pennsylvania’s open records law caused that decision, he said, “Part of that response could have an impact on the pending Sherry litigation, and therefore that’s not a specific matter I would comment on.”
But with the documents released, is the Sherry case ostensibly over?
“I anticipate at the next [school] board meeting this case will be finalized,” said Daniel Sherry, Jr., one of Sherry’s attorneys.
