ELLIJAY, Ga – School Superintendent Jason Kouns presumably left the decision about archiving emails in the hands of the board of education members.Fourteen days ago FYN sent an email to Kouns as an open records request asking for all the emails that had been sent and received from his email since January 2014 to December 2014. FYN’s email was responded to by the school attorney stating that Kouns didn’t have emails dating back that far. (To learn more about the why the open records report was requested and what has transpired from the request over the last two weeks, read these articles: Jason Kouns Email, 51 Million Reasons Kouns Should Release His Email, and Did Kouns Delete His Emails? )

At the December 15th, 2014 BOE workshop Kouns addressed the board members with an update on the request, after seeking legal counsel, because of the perception in the community that something illegal was going on by not archiving the emails sent and received from the employees of the school system.

Kouns stated that the board had done nothing illegal by not archiving the emails because of a previously instated policy by the former school superintendent Brian Dorsey on January 1st, 2010 that stated that all emails had to be archived for zero days.

“We have done absolutely nothing illegal…I’m not saying that it’s not right or it’s not wrong, it’s just not illegal,” said Kouns referencing the archiving of emails.

Kouns then spoke to say that because of the perception in the community that the board had two decisions to make: First, whether or not to archive emails in the future and second, if the board decided that emails should be archived, for how long would the emails be archived?

Members of the community, Joene DePlancke and Paul Deese, spoke to say that it’s not a matter whether or not to archive emails because it’s not up to the BOE members to make that decision, it’s the law to do so according to the Georgia Open Records Act. Therefore not archiving emails, both sent and received, is illegal.

No decision was made, but as soon as FYN has an update we will keep everyone informed:

Gilmer BOE Email from Fetch on Vimeo.

See the public comment here:

Workshop PC from Fetch on Vimeo.