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When asked for data, Peoria district parried

Last September, a group of parents in the Peoria Unified School District filed a public-records request to find out how much money the district was spending on the financially troubled Challenger Learning Center. Instead of getting the documents to which they were legally entitled, the Peoria United Parent Council got a letter from a school district lawyer demanding that they pay for the gathering and copying of the documents. "That tells us they don't care if parents have questions," said Kim Olsen, vice president of the parent group. The request focused on the financial relationship between the school district, headquartered in Glendale, and the Challenger Space Center in Peoria. The center, a public-private partnership facility that opened in 2000, uses a space-based learning environment to teach math, science, technology and workplace skills to both children and adults. The parent group formed during the summer because of concerns about the district's involvement in the center, which amassed a debt of nearly $1 million over the last four years. The Peoria district has funded some of the staff salaries at the center. Parents said enough is enough in July when the district's governing board decided to use $165,000 of the district's budget for the operation of the center. Under an agreement signed by the district and the center in 2000, that money does not have to be repaid. Money to pay Challenger staff salaries must be repaid. In its letter from the Peoria district's attorney, parents were told it would cost 5 cents per page for the "voluminous" request. The letter also says the documents requested have confidential information that will need to be redacted at $15 per hour. The letter then asks the parents to call the law office if they want to proceed with the request. It was the only time this year that the district responded to a public-records request through its lawyer. In each of the five other cases, the documents were turned over relatively quickly. Those requests, some of which sought the same information the parents group was seeking, were from the media. In fact, stacks of documents on the issue were released to The Arizona Republic in May at no charge. Greg Donovan, outgoing board president, said the charges were fair because the parents had asked for the documents and Challenger-related questions so much that staff members were spending too much time on the parent group's inquiries. "When have you crossed the line?" he said. "If you keep asking and asking and asking, we're going to have to start charging you." Instead of paying, the parent group asked the Arizona Attorney General's Office to investigate the district's relationship with the space center. Olsen said the letter to the attorney general would not have been sent had the district simply provided the documents. Olsen said the Attorney General's Office has initiated an investigation. A representative of the office would not confirm or deny whether an investigation was taking place.