FOIA request Across VA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the wow? We told you you would incur the cost of pulling the information. That’s how it works. Pay it or don’t.

this. If there was no requirement to pay the cost, people would use FOIA to bankrupt municipalities

FCPS doesn't require payment if its less than $250...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What’s the wow? We told you you would incur the cost of pulling the information. That’s how it works. Pay it or don’t.

this. If there was no requirement to pay the cost, people would use FOIA to bankrupt municipalities

FCPS doesn't require payment if its less than $250...

Their response indicates it will be more than $200. The $200 is a good faith deposit so they don’t run the info for nothing. Op can pay or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Request Item #1: A (PDF) copy of the CRT lesson plan being taught to students by grade level.
No such document(s) or record(s) exists. Berkeley County Schools absolutely
does not teach students to hate the color of their skin. We do teach them to be accepting and
respectful to all, regardless of their race, gender, or any other difference. A discussion about
white privilege, racism, anti-racism, etc., may occur in classes based on content standards or
organic purposes - particularly in history or English classes - which does not denote teaching
critical race theory.


They are teaching about "White Privilege"..... There is no such thing as white Privilege...

Ok so request the nonexistent PDF from another county. Keep trying. Close your eyes and hope. Or get a life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Request Item #1: A (PDF) copy of the CRT lesson plan being taught to students by grade level.
No such document(s) or record(s) exists. Berkeley County Schools absolutely
does not teach students to hate the color of their skin. We do teach them to be accepting and
respectful to all, regardless of their race, gender, or any other difference. A discussion about
white privilege, racism, anti-racism, etc., may occur in classes based on content standards or
organic purposes - particularly in history or English classes - which does not denote teaching
critical race theory.


They are teaching about "White Privilege"..... There is no such thing as white Privilege...

Ok so request the nonexistent PDF from another county. Keep trying. Close your eyes and hope. Or get a life.

I got 5 others responds with the same lines, I don't think CRT Is taught in VA schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing this thread reveals that I keep saying to people in real life is all these CRT people have zero clue what they’re talking about. Not even just with CRT which is a given. They want to say what happens in education but people don’t even know what FOIA does and doesn’t cover, the difference between curriculum and standards, what is in a lesson plan. It’s wild. Who the hell gave any of you the notion you should have control over what and how schools teach when you know NOTHING about even the most basic concepts related to school?

Not OP and someone who knows all the terms you mentioned (have even seen the program of studies as given to teachers). CRT is a floating signifier, but I can usually tell when someone means the whole worldview of Kendi/DiAngelo versus the writings of Crenshaw versus the straw man the left makes of the rights’ concerns.

However: I think it is utterly wild that you can say parents should not have input on the education of the children they are raising. Parents (and guardians/caregivers) are a child’s first and most important teachers. Of course they have a say.

They do have a say. They can submit their comments to VDOE. If they don't like that, that is why we have private school and homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you actually want to see curricula. There might be a rights issue there because it needs to be purchased. Either way you aren’t going to find what you’re looking for.

Curriculum is usually available on school district websites.

No it isn’t. If it exists it’s copyrighted. Rarely does a full curriculum exist to hand to teachers though.

Does Virginia exempt copyrighted materials? Federally, isn't research, criticism, news etc. fair use? In Virginia, can requested docs simply be inspected so they don't require reproduction.

No. Curriculum would be a product that a company produced and a district paid for. It is intellectual property. It would not be subject to FOIA’s. FOIA is for internal communication, data, records.

you should get any communications that discuss or distribute it with the copyrighted material redacted or removed. You can also get any communications with the provider not protected by an exemption

Communications regarding curriculum is not going to talk about CRT. It's going to talk about delivery dates and billing and numbers of copies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Unfortunately, we did not receive a request for information from you last week.

Given the breadth of your first request and reasonable costs associated with reviewing numerous existing documents and converting that information into a presentable form, it is reasonable to anticipate that the cost will exceed $200.

Pursuant to existing policy, we must request that you agree to pay a deposit of $200 before continuing to process this request. This deposit will be credited toward the final cost of supplying the requested material.

As per your second request, our high schools are grades 9 through 12 for the 2020-21 academic year."

WOW JUST WOW

That is 100% normal. Do you have a final cost from them? I'd get that before putting down $200.

To get lesson plans from every teacher from every grade from every school would be several hundred thousand, at least.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Request Item #1: A (PDF) copy of the CRT lesson plan being taught to students by grade level.
No such document(s) or record(s) exists. Berkeley County Schools absolutely
does not teach students to hate the color of their skin. We do teach them to be accepting and
respectful to all, regardless of their race, gender, or any other difference. A discussion about
white privilege, racism, anti-racism, etc., may occur in classes based on content standards or
organic purposes - particularly in history or English classes - which does not denote teaching
critical race theory.

They are teaching about "White Privilege"..... There is no such thing as white Privilege...

Sure there is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Request Item #1: A (PDF) copy of the CRT lesson plan being taught to students by grade level.
No such document(s) or record(s) exists. Berkeley County Schools absolutely
does not teach students to hate the color of their skin. We do teach them to be accepting and
respectful to all, regardless of their race, gender, or any other difference. A discussion about
white privilege, racism, anti-racism, etc., may occur in classes based on content standards or
organic purposes - particularly in history or English classes - which does not denote teaching
critical race theory.


They are teaching about "White Privilege"..... There is no such thing as white Privilege...

Ok so request the nonexistent PDF from another county. Keep trying. Close your eyes and hope. Or get a life.

I got 5 others responds with the same lines, I don't think CRT Is taught in VA schools.

No it is. Keep digging. Pay anything they ask. You’ll find it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you actually want to see curricula. There might be a rights issue there because it needs to be purchased. Either way you aren’t going to find what you’re looking for.

Curriculum is usually available on school district websites.

No it isn’t. If it exists it’s copyrighted. Rarely does a full curriculum exist to hand to teachers though.

Perhaps I'm using the term wrong, but I've seen on many schools websites or the districts website what they were planning to cover in very fine detail.

Probably either a syllabus or the SOLs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing this thread reveals that I keep saying to people in real life is all these CRT people have zero clue what they’re talking about. Not even just with CRT which is a given. They want to say what happens in education but people don’t even know what FOIA does and doesn’t cover, the difference between curriculum and standards, what is in a lesson plan. It’s wild. Who the hell gave any of you the notion you should have control over what and how schools teach when you know NOTHING about even the most basic concepts related to school?

Not OP and someone who knows all the terms you mentioned (have even seen the program of studies as given to teachers). CRT is a floating signifier, but I can usually tell when someone means the whole worldview of Kendi/DiAngelo versus the writings of Crenshaw versus the straw man the left makes of the rights’ concerns.

However: I think it is utterly wild that you can say parents should not have input on the education of the children they are raising. Parents (and guardians/caregivers) are a child’s first and most important teachers. Of course they have a say.

Their say is through representative governance at the state and local level. This idea that they can dictate something to happen or not in a school? Not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing this thread reveals that I keep saying to people in real life is all these CRT people have zero clue what they’re talking about. Not even just with CRT which is a given. They want to say what happens in education but people don’t even know what FOIA does and doesn’t cover, the difference between curriculum and standards, what is in a lesson plan. It’s wild. Who the hell gave any of you the notion you should have control over what and how schools teach when you know NOTHING about even the most basic concepts related to school?

Not OP and someone who knows all the terms you mentioned (have even seen the program of studies as given to teachers). CRT is a floating signifier, but I can usually tell when someone means the whole worldview of Kendi/DiAngelo versus the writings of Crenshaw versus the straw man the left makes of the rights’ concerns.

However: I think it is utterly wild that you can say parents should not have input on the education of the children they are raising. Parents (and guardians/caregivers) are a child’s first and most important teachers. Of course they have a say.

We are not talking about input. We are talking about political groups demanding “they” take back “their” schools and trying to get books, curriculum, etc. removed or rewritten for their personal agenda. Yet don’t even know what CRT is or what the difference is between standards and curriculum.

Point me to a real actual group doing this. Not an opinion piece by a scared op-ed writer, but a real group.

DP but the Stand Up Virginia PAC is underwriting a lot of this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing this thread reveals that I keep saying to people in real life is all these CRT people have zero clue what they’re talking about. Not even just with CRT which is a given. They want to say what happens in education but people don’t even know what FOIA does and doesn’t cover, the difference between curriculum and standards, what is in a lesson plan. It’s wild. Who the hell gave any of you the notion you should have control over what and how schools teach when you know NOTHING about even the most basic concepts related to school?

Not OP and someone who knows all the terms you mentioned (have even seen the program of studies as given to teachers). CRT is a floating signifier, but I can usually tell when someone means the whole worldview of Kendi/DiAngelo versus the writings of Crenshaw versus the straw man the left makes of the rights’ concerns.

However: I think it is utterly wild that you can say parents should not have input on the education of the children they are raising. Parents (and guardians/caregivers) are a child’s first and most important teachers. Of course they have a say.

We are not talking about input. We are talking about political groups demanding “they” take back “their” schools and trying to get books, curriculum, etc. removed or rewritten for their personal agenda. Yet don’t even know what CRT is or what the difference is between standards and curriculum.

Point me to a real actual group doing this. Not an opinion piece by a scared op-ed writer, but a real group.

DP but the Stand Up Virginia PAC is underwriting a lot of this

I told her that. She still just excuses them as lil ol parents just wanting input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you actually want to see curricula. There might be a rights issue there because it needs to be purchased. Either way you aren’t going to find what you’re looking for.

Curriculum is usually available on school district websites.

No it isn’t. If it exists it’s copyrighted. Rarely does a full curriculum exist to hand to teachers though.

Does Virginia exempt copyrighted materials? Federally, isn't research, criticism, news etc. fair use? In Virginia, can requested docs simply be inspected so they don't require reproduction.

No. Curriculum would be a product that a company produced and a district paid for. It is intellectual property. It would not be subject to FOIA’s. FOIA is for internal communication, data, records.

Here is Virginia's definition of "public records":

"Public records" means all writings and recordings that consist of letters, words or numbers, or their equivalent, set down by handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostatting, photography, magnetic impulse, optical or magneto-optical form, mechanical or electronic recording or other form of data compilation, however stored, and regardless of physical form or characteristics, prepared or owned by, or IN THE POSSESSION OF a public body or its officers, employees or agents in the transaction of public business.

There are lots of exempted records if you care to peruse the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title2.2/chapter37/section2.2-3701/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, try requesting materials/programs for "Social and Emotional Learning" aka what the school counselors are doing. They seem to have focused almost every session this past year talking about race, and seem to have done away with the usual topics they used to focus on.

Much of what I've seen in my kids' classrooms was not labeled CRT. Instead, I've noticed some of my kids' more motivated teachers (in addition to the counselors) coming up with their own CRT and BLM-inspired lessons during morning meeting. I would argue that the incessant emails talking about "equity," mirror talking points used by prominent Dem politicians. It is very clearly a political agenda.

Think of it this way. We can probably all agree that it's ok to teach kids about the tenets of the major religions, but declaring one to the be "right" one and weaving it into every subject would be objectionable to most everyone.. Clearly CRT and related views are decidedly falling into one political camp. It's simply not okay to choose what is clearly a highly politicized ideology of any kind and foisting it on our kids, whether it's CRT or Right to Life.

From a practical standpoint, the definition of "political" as it's defined in statute needs revision. Right now, VA statute only deems candidates and political parties to be "political" in the context of schools and what can be taught. With the myriad activist groups and 504cs that have developed over the years, this needs to be updated. Parents are savvy enough to detect when something has crossed into the "political" realm, and none of us want our kids to be indoctrinated.

The bottom line is, kids need a good education without a political agenda. Our kids will be competing with the best and brightest across the globe for jobs some day and what they need is a strong grounding in the ability to communicate effectively and handle high level math for fields like AI, finance, etc. Educators need to get back to basics and that will do more to serve underprivileged kids than any of these sessions.

What I’ve never been about to get my head around is that if you think equity is political and that democrats are for it does that make you against equity? And you’re okay being on that side of history? Baffles me. Fox News manufactured this crazy CRT debate just to stir up the racists and it worked brilliantly.