April 24, 2012

Ms. Melanie L. Hollmann

Counsel for the Ector County Independent School District

Atkins, Hollmann, Jones, Peacock, Lewis & Lyon

3800 East 42^nd Street, Suite 500

Odessa, Texas 79762

OR2012-05825

Dear Ms. Hollmann:

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# 451430.

The Ector County Independent School District (the "district"), which you represent, received a request for all written reprimands made by a named district employee to subordinates for a specified time period. You claim the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information other statutes make confidential. You claim section 552.101 in conjunction with section 21.355 of the Education Code, which provides in part that "[a] document evaluating the performance of a teacher or administrator is confidential." See Educ. Code § 21.355(a). 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 at 3 (1996). We have determined the word "administrator" for purposes of section 21.355 means a person who (1) is required to, and does in fact, hold an administrator's certificate under subchapter B of chapter 21 of the Education Code, and (2) is performing the functions of an administrator, as that term is commonly defined, at the time of the evaluation. Id. The Third Court of Appeals has concluded a written reprimand constitutes an evaluation for purposes of section 21.355, because "it reflects the principal's judgment regarding [a teacher's] actions, gives corrective direction, and provides for further review." See Abbott v. North East Indep. Sch. Dist., 212 S.W.3d 364 (Tex. App.--Austin 2006, no pet.). We further determined that, based on the staturory scheme of chapter 21, "teacher interns, teacher trainees, librarians, educational aids and counselors cannot be teachers or administrators for purposes of section 21.355." See ORD 643 at 5.

You contend the majority of the submitted reprimands are confidential evaluations of the administrators at issue. You provide documentation showing these administrators were certified by the State Board for Educator Certification and were acting as administrators at the time of the evaluations. Based on your representations and our review, we find the district must withhold the reprimands we have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 21.355 of the Education Code. However, as you acknowledge in your brief, the remaining employee does not have an educator certification and was serving as a counselor at the time of the reprimand. Accordingly, the district may not withhold the remaining reprimand under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 21.355 of the Education Code. As you raise no further exceptions, this information must be released.

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information 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 information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General, toll free, at (888) 672-6787.

Sincerely,

Tamara Wilcox

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

TW/som

Ref: ID# 451430

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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