Melrose School Committee says records missing online just an oversight

By Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff

The Melrose School Committee is updating its web page to include archived material from 2010 and 2011 that one member charges were taken down from the the site, www.melroseschools.com.

The minutes and related materials for 2010 were put on the site Wednesday, and a complete set of minutes for 2011 should be up by Friday, Superintendent Joseph Casey said.

"Nothing was lost or taken down, "Casey said. "It's just a matter of updating things . . . Once it was brought to our attention that they weren't there, we addressed it."

School Committee Member Carrie Kourkoumelis, a first-term member who has been critical of the board's public communication, sent an e-mail to Casey and School Committee chairwoman Kristin Thorp questioning why records for the two years were not included on the archives page of the site, despite numerous requests made to the committee.

"The online SC archives for 2010 and 2011 continue to be missing from the district website," Kourkoumelis wrote in the e-mail on March 5. "This has been noted multiple times in our public meetings. Members of the public have contacted me numerous times seeking information from these archives. Please contact Mr. Pazos and ask his staff to place those archives on the web."

Pazos refers to Jorge Pazos, the city's director of information technology, whose staff maintains the city and school department websites.

In an interview, Kourkoumelis said not having the records posted for 2010 and 2011 violates a policy the School Committee adopted in November, which states that the most recent two years worth of records shall be posted on the website. All older information would be removed, but available upon request in either electronic or written form. The current archives page contains minutes dating back to 2000.

"When the policy came up for discussion in November, I said 'Why would we take anything down?'" said Kourkoumelis, who voted against the policy, which is the same one used for City Hall departments.

Thorp said the omissions were an oversite. "We fell behind updating the site," she said. "Nothing has been removed."

She noted that minutes from November and December meetings are published under the School Committee meetings page of the website. The original copies for both years are available for public review at the school department offices, she said.

"Everything is available for the public," Thorp said.

Kourkoumelis said the records for 2010 and 2011 would contain discussion of Casey's evaluation during those years. Casey is retiring in June. Candidates to replace him will visit Melrose schools March 15-28.

Pazos said his staff did not remove the records, because they were never published on the website. "We've never removed anything, or received any direction to do so," he said in an interview.

Pazos said a person will be hired this summer to update the school department's website. Outdated information on the site includes the title of the School Committee chairwoman, still listed as Margaret Driscoll, whose tenure ended in January. On the archives page, a listing of meeting schedules stops at 2007 and budget documents stop for fiscal year 2009.

"We're in the process of cleaning up the site in general," Pazos said. "We're trying to work with [the school department] to make sure the site works the way they want it to work."

Kathy McCabe can be reached at kmccabe@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKMcCabe.