For Immediate Release
January 27, 2021
The Transparency Foundation today issued a call for a full investigation into reports that the San Diego Unified School District is deleting emails in direct violation of the California Public Records Act (CPRA) requirements.
The California Public Records Act (CPRA) requires that every government agency retain records and be capable of disclosing those records to the public upon request. Compliance with the CPRA is key to serving the public’s right-to-know about government decision-making on issues they care about.
On January 25, 2021, the Voice of San Diego broke the news of what appears to be a clear violation by the San Diego Unified School District of the CPRA requirements:
“Technology personnel trained top-level district officials on a three-step procedure to permanently delete sensitive emails from the district server, an official who took part in the training told Voice of San Diego. The training took place two months after San Diego Unified entered into a court-approved agreement to keep emails for at least two years, as part of a lawsuit with Voice of San Diego.”
The Transparency Foundation believes this report warrants a full investigation by a neutral third party and is calling on the San Diego Unified School District Board of Trustees to request such an investigation be conducted by the San Diego District Attorney.
“We are very concerned about reports that officials at the San Diego Unified School District are deleting emails in direct violation of California’s Public Records Act requirements and we urge a full and unbiased investigation into this matter,” said Transparency Foundation President Carl DeMaio.
Read the full story in the Voice of San Diego https://www.voiceofsandiego.org/topics/education/official-san-diego-unified-trained-employees-to-delete-emails-from-public-record/