"The Boston Globe Kyle York has long had concerns about how business is done at Lexington Public Schools. Dissatisfied with how the district supported his daughter with dyslexia, York began requesting a series of records last April. Jumping off another parent's research, soon he was seeking expense invoices that would explain, for example, how the administration spent tens of thousands of dollars at the Beauport Hotel in Gloucester."
"An email he recently discovered and shared with the Globe shows, at least in one instance, his suspicions were dead on. "Can you over estimate the time that it would take you to compile/copy the invoices requested and let me know when you have a chance?" one district employee wrote in a May 12, 2025, email, which York obtained in a broader record release. "Hopefully, when I let [York] know the cost they will not want to do it.""
"In an email between school officials, a Lexington father found written confirmation of what many public records requesters have suspected: Public employees were conspiring to overcharge him for documents he was entitled to, in the hopes he would abandon the request. The request in question ended up getting fulfilled for free, rather than York having to pay the $1,000 estimate, as part of the same data release that the email was in."
Kyle York sought public records after dissatisfaction with how Lexington Public Schools supported his daughter with dyslexia. He requested expense invoices, including details of tens of thousands spent at the Beauport Hotel in Gloucester. York suspected officials were stonewalling or inflating fees to deter him; a May 12, 2025 email showed a district employee asking to overestimate time and cost so York would abandon the request. That specific request was later fulfilled for free and Superintendent Julie Hackett apologized. Other residents have faced higher cost estimates, prompting concerns about a broader culture of resisting records requests.
Read at Boston.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]