Kouns Calls in Clarification On Email Archiving

ELLIJAY, Ga – The first Board of Education meeting of the year started off with superintendent of schools Jason Kouns inviting attorney Phil Hartley to address the board on the on-going conversation about the legality behind the archiving of emails. (To see the back story from where the conversation derived from read these stories: Where Are Superintendent Jason Kouns’ E-Mails?, 51 Million Reasons Why Kouns Should Release Email, and Archiving Public Records a BOE Members Decision? )Hartley made it very clear that, while there is nothing in Georgia state law that specifically pertains to emails being archived for open records, it’s not a matter of whether or not a document is in electronic format or in a printed/written format that determines if the item must be archived. Hartley said that it is a matter of the content of the message. If the email contains information that is required by law to be retained, then yes, the email must be archived.

After Hartley addressed whether or not emails had to be archived, he then moved into addressing the next question that board member Noreen Thomas asked; for the emails that do have to be archived, how long should Gilmer County keep them?

Seeing that Georgia has a 171 page Retention Schedule that lists everything that must be archived and for how long each item is to be kept, Hartley stated that different school systems use different time lengths to archive general emails.

“It’s really like a pendulum. Some schools delete their emails everyday (except the ones that must be archived according to the retention schedule) and then other schools never delete anything at all,”

said Hartley.

As of now, the board is still collaborating on how long they will keep emails and for what specific uses work emails will be used for.

Stay posted in the days to come for more information on how the school board will proceed with the archiving of emails.

See Hartley speak below:

Gilmer BOE 011515 from Fetch on Vimeo.