Iroquois West CUSD #10 – Clearing up the FOIA costs

GILMAN, IL. (ECWd) –

We had previously reported on the inaccurate comments made by Iroquois West CUSD #10’s Superintendent on the cost of FOIA request made by the Watchdogs (here); she told the Gilman Star it costs the School District $2,977.00 to respond to our FOIA requests.

On March 21, 2019, Kirk Allen served an FOIA request on the district requesting, among others: “all costs associated with FOIA for the year 2018.”

The district responded on March 27, 2019, with a one-page document stating that the costs associated with FOIA (for the entire year of 2018) were $2,977.36. Their own records prove her comment inaccurate.

If we are to take their response to this FOIA as accurate, and the Superintendent’s comment to the Gilman Star as accurate, then we would conclude that the only FOIA received by the district in the year 2018 came from the Watchdogs.

We know that is not true.

Other scenarios could be true, such as:

• The only FOIAs tracked in 2018 were the ones coming from us, which would make us wonder why we were the only ones tracked
• Or, she gave inaccurate information to the newspaper, who then printed it without verification. (We KNOW this one is true)
• Or the FOIA response was incomplete since there are other FOIAs’ for the year making the number provided false.  

As if all the other misinformation coming from this District is not confusing enough, we are perplexed as to how an FOIA request resulted in mileage costs of $39.24, especially since the response was e-mailed to us? For now, until more information is made available, we believe that all costs for the entire year of FOIA requests, from all parties, was $2,977.36.

We renew our demand for an apology from Superintendent Dvorak for her false statements reported in the paper as true.

.
Our work is funded entirely thru donations and we
ask that you consider donating at the below link.