February 22, 2008

Ms. J. LeAnne Bram Lundy

Feldman & Rogers, L.L.P.

5718 Westheimer Road, Suite 1200

Houston, Texas 77057

OR2008-02418

Dear Ms. Lundy:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 302792.

The Galveston Independent School District (the "district"), which you represent, received a request for five categories of information pertaining to the requestor, the district, and three named individuals. You state that you released most of the responsive information to the requestor on December 13, 2007. You claim that information responsive to the request for the personnel files of three named individuals is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.102, and 552.117 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.101 excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This exception encompasses information that other statutes make confidential. You assert that Exhibit B contains documents that are excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 in conjunction with section 21.355 of the Education Code, which provides that "[a] document evaluating the performance of a teacher or administrator is confidential." Educ. Code § 21.355. This office has interpreted section 21.355 to apply to any document that evaluates, as that term is commonly understood, the performance of a teacher or an administrator. See Open Records Decision No. 643 (1996). We have determined that the word "administrator" in section 21.355 means a person who is required to and does in fact hold an administrator's certificate under subchapter B of chapter 21 of the Education Code and is performing the functions of an administrator, as that term is commonly defined, at the time of the evaluation. Id.

You contend that some of the documents within Exhibit B are evaluations of an administrator that are confidential under section 21.355. You have provided the administrator's certificate and her contract with the district, which show that she was a certified and active school administrator at the time the evaluations were made. Having considered your arguments and reviewed the information at issue, we agree that most of the documents you have marked under section 21.355 evaluate the performance of an administrator for the purposes of section 21.355. However, one of these documents, which we have marked for release, does not evaluate the performance of an administrator. The district must withhold the remaining documents you have marked within Exhibit B under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 21.355 of the Texas Education Code.

Section 552.102(b) excepts from disclosure all information from transcripts of professional public school employees other than the employee's name, the courses taken, and the degree obtained. Gov't Code § 552.102; Open Records Decision No. 526 (1989). Thus, with the exception of the employee's name, the courses taken, and the degree obtained, the district must withhold the transcripts you have marked in Exhibit B under section 552.102(b) of the Government Code.

You indicate that some of the remaining information is subject to section 552.117 of the Government Code, which excepts from public disclosure the home address and telephone number, social security number, and family member information of a current or former official or employee of a governmental body who requests that this information be kept confidential under section 552.024 of the Government Code. The district may only withhold information under section 552.117 on behalf of current or former employees who made a request for confidentiality under section 552.024 prior to the date on which the request for this information was made. For those employees who timely elected to keep their personal information confidential, the district must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.117(a)(1) of the Government Code. The district may not withhold the information we have marked under section 552.117 for those individuals who did not make a timely election to keep the information confidential. ⁽¹⁾

In summary, except for the document we marked for release, the district must withhold the information you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 21.355 of the Education Code. Except for the employee's name, the courses taken, and the degree obtained, the district must withhold the transcripts you have marked within Exhibit B under section 552.102(b) of the Government Code. Finally, for those employees who timely elected to keep their personal information confidential, the district must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.117(a)(1) of the Government Code. The remaining information must be released.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must file suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such a challenge, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a).

If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code. If the governmental body fails to do one of these things, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).

If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can challenge that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Dep't of Pub. Safety v. Gilbreath , 842 S.W.2d 408, 411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ).

Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.

If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.

Sincerely,

Reg Hargrove

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

RJH/eeg

Ref: ID# 302792

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Mr. Radoslav Dimitric

P. O. Box 382

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15230

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note that if the employees at issue did not elect confidentiality under section 552.024 of the Government Code, section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a government body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office under the Act.

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