FOIL: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion materials (Lynbrook Union Free School District)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the New York Freedom of Information Law, I hereby request the following records:

All materials and correspondence between the district Board of Education, district Administration, district Equity Committee or Office, Faculty, Staff, Third Party Contractors and Consultants related to the following terms, subjects or concepts between April 2021 to the date this request is fulfilled:

Race
Anti-racism
Racism
Equity
Culturally Responsive
Decolonize
Diversity
Implicit Bias
Intersectionality
Microaggression
Oppression
Patriarchy
People of Color
Privilege(d)
Safe Space
Social Justice
Tokenism
White Supremacy

This request shall also include any teachings of such curriculum mentioned above by any faculty employed within the school district, third party contractors, consultants or other third parties invited by the school or agents of the school.

This request shall also include any documents or materials accessed by the school district, but stored on third party service providers on behalf of the district, and links/references/credentials for access to such materials if present in emails or electronic systems or files stored in browser caches, cloud storage (i.e. Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc), or local hard drives managed by the district. This request shall also include non-school email and texting services used by the district, board, administration and faculty to conduct activities and business related to the school district (i.e. Gmail, Outlook, etc).

This request shall also include any training material or supplemental information provided to district staff, whether required or suggested.

Please keep in mind, pursuant to the Retention and Disposition Schedule for New York Local Government Records (LGS-01): Any record listed in the LGS-01 Schedule for which a Freedom of Information (FOIL) request has been received should not be destroyed until that request has been answered and until any potential appeal is made and resolved, even if the retention period of the record has passed.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 5 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jackson Parker

Dear Dr. Beleckas,

Thank you for your response regarding my FOIA request. I understand your concern about the breadth of the request and appreciate your guidance on how to particularize it.

To clarify, by "all materials and correspondence," I am referring primarily to written communications such as emails, memos, letters, and district-wide mailings that pertain to the listed terms, subjects, or concepts from April 2021 to the date this request is fulfilled. These materials should include, but are not limited to, meeting minutes, reports, policy drafts, proposals, and educational materials related to these topics.

As for the individuals involved in the communications, I am seeking materials and correspondence involving the district Board of Education, district Administration, district Equity Committee or Office, Faculty, Staff, Third Party Contractors, and Consultants. If it is easier to process, I would be willing to receive the information in batches by role or department.

Regarding the request for "any teachings of such curriculum by any faculty employed within the school district, third-party contractors, consultants, or other third parties invited by the school or agents of the school," I am seeking documents such as syllabi, lesson plans, meeting agendas, presentations, handouts, and other instructional materials related to the terms, subjects, or concepts listed in the original request.

Lastly, concerning the request for documents or materials accessed by the school district but stored on third-party service providers, and non-school email and texting services, I understand the complexity of this request. To narrow it down, I am interested in any documents or materials related to the listed terms, subjects, or concepts that are stored on official district cloud storage platforms (i.e., Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.) and sent through official district email systems.

I hope this clarification helps you locate the records I am seeking. I look forward to your response within the next twenty business days.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best,

Jackson Parker