By TOM KNAPP
Staff Writer | Lancaster Newspapers

Hempfield School District must open its books to a resident who appealed to Harrisburg for more detailed budget information from the district administration.

The state Office of Open Records on Monday ruled in favor of Stephanie Rittenhouse, of Woodlyn Farm Way, who requested individual budgets for the district’s individual schools, academic departments and operational divisions.

The district had refused the request, saying only the final budget — Form 2028, which must be filed with the state Department of Education — is public record.

In fact, Hempfield’s chief financial officer, Mary Lynne Kniley, told Rittenhouse at board meetings that those budget documents do not exist.

Benjamin Lorah, appeals officer for the OOR, did not agree.

“While the District claims that it does not possess a budget with department or school level detail,” he wrote in his June 16 decision, “it strains credulity that District prepares the PDE 2028 for each academic year without first generating a line item budget used to calculate the values reflected on the PDE 2028 or to track the portion of its budgeted by-department or by-school expenses incurred over the course of the fiscal year.”

Rittenhouse said Tuesday she is “pleased, with a little bit of a caveat.”

“I just don’t know that they’re going to comply with it or actually release the information,” she said. “They may find some way to claim they don’t have the information, or they may send information that doesn’t really answer my questions.”

District superintendent Brenda Becker said Tuesday she had just returned from a brief vacation and hadn’t read the OOR’s decision.

“We have 30 days to respond,” she said. “I want to talk it over with the board and see what they have to say before we determine what to do next.”

She expects the issue will be a topic for the board’s July 8 executive session.

The administration can act on the matter without the board’s input, Becker noted, “but any time there is a legal issue of any sort, I would never do anything without consultation with the board.”

Rittenhouse filed her requests in March for budget information for 2013-14 and 2014-15 under the state’s Right-to-Know Law.

Hempfield, in its response, argued that districts in Pennsylvania “do not prepare separate budgets for ‘each academic and operational department’ or for ‘each school.’ Rather, each district is required to prepare one annual budget projecting expenses and revenues for all departments and schools within the district for the upcoming year.”

The district has 30 days to provide the information or file an appeal with the county Court of Common Pleas.

Rittenhouse said she isn’t worried.

“The case law is clear; if they appeal, they will lose,” she said. “But it is another delaying tactic.”

This isn’t the first time Rittenhouse has tussled with the district over information. Twice in 2012 she appealed to the OOR for records pertaining to the district’s Parent Teacher Organization. In both cases, the OOR ruled in her favor.

Rittenhouse said Tuesday she wants the budget information because “I would like to see how the money is actually spent in the district.”

The Form 2028 budget, which is available on the district’s website, does not provide a breakdown of expenditures, she complained.

“Arts, library books, athletic uniforms ... you can’t really tell anything from the budget,” she said. “We don’t know how the monies are being used, and we don’t have any way to influence how those decisions are being made.”

Lorah, quoting Bowling v. Office of Open Records, said the Right-to-Know Law is “designed to promote access to official government information in order to prohibit secrets, scrutinize the actions of public officials and make public officials accountable for their actions.”

Records in possession of a local agency are presumed public unless exempted by law or protected by a privilege, judicial order or decree, Lorah wrote. An agency must respond to requests for records within five business days.

The district argued that the word “budget” means only PDE 2028, which is approved by the school board, Lorah wrote. However, he added, the term “also includes the budgets used by academic departments and school buildings to ensure that the annual expenditures do not exceed their allocated portion of District funds for the fiscal year. These are the types of budgets sought in the Request and the District has not submitted credible evidence to support its assertion that these records do not exist.”

Rittenhouse said she plans to release the documents to the public as soon as she receives them and scrutinize them for abberations in the budget.

“I don’t know if they’re hiding anything or not,” she said. “There’s no transparency in the district. If taxpayers have questions or concerns, they’re ignored. ... The administration has to be held accountable.”

She chided the district for creating “an atmosphere of secrecy and retaliation from the top.”

“It’s not a healthy way to run an organization, and the long-term effect is going to bring down the quality of education in Hempfield,” she said.

Becker said the district tries “very hard to be responsive to our residents,” and added that Hempfield strives to be open.

“Prior to our current administration team, there were never any open community forums,” she said. “We’re providing more information on our website than ever before, we’re seeking input more than ever before. We’re doing the best that we can.”

She and other district officials have responded positively to most of Rittenhouse’s requests for information, Becker said.

District communications officer Shannon Zimmerman said the district abides “by the PDE definition of budget, which includes revenue and expenses and is reported on the PDE form 2028. We were advised by legal counsel to follow PDE's definition of a budget.

“From the ruling, it appears that OOR has broadened the definition of budget beyond what this definition has been in the past.”