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VIRGINIA FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT. SCHOOLS. OFFICIAL RECORDS
ROUTINELY GENERATED ELSEWHERE PURSUANT TO LAW DO NOT ACQUIRE SPECIAL
STATUS MERELY BECAUSE DEPOSITED WITH CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER IN
ORDINARY COURSE OF BUSINESS. BUS DRIVER'S MONTHLY REPORTS HELD BY
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT.
February 26, 1981
The Honorable J. Richmond Low, Jr.
Commonwealth's Attorney for King George County
80-81 395
You ask whether the Bus Driver's Monthly Reports (the "Reports")
held by the county Superintendent of schools are excluded under
§2.1-342 (b) (4) of the Code of Virginia (1950), as amended,
from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (Ch. 21 of Title
2.1).
Section 2.1-342 (b) (4) excludes memoranda, working papers and
correspondence held or requested by the chief executive officer of
any political subdivision of the Commonwealth. School boards are
political subdivisions, and the superintendents are their chief
executive officers.1 The Reports
give a daily summary of pupils transported, miles driven, stops made,
and gas and oil added. At the end of each month, the daily amounts
are totalled, and the Reports transmitted by the transportation
supervisor to the superintendent of schools.
The Reports are used for internal administrative purposes, such as
the planning of changes in bus routes, and are not routineIy
distributed to the school board or any other public body. At the same
time, the Reports are prepared and maintained to comply with items
14, 17 and 18 of the Regulations Governing Pupil Transportation and
Minimum Standards for School Buses prescribed by the State Board of
Education under § 22.1-176(D). The Reports are also used to
prepare the annual transportation report to the State Department of
Education.
This Office has recently held that materials specially prepared by
a superintendent come within the exclusion provided by §
2.1-342(b)(4). The materials at issue in that Opinion originated with
the superintendent, however, and reflected the superintendent's
special work product. The materials were not official records
routinely generated elsewhere pursuant to State regulation, for which
the superintendent's office became a depository in the ordinary
course of business.
For the exclusion under § 2.1-342 (b) (4) to be applicable,
there must be some factor that specially relates an official record
to the chief executive officer's requirements for the conduct of his
office. Official records specially generated at the chief executive
officer's request come within the exclusion. Official records
routinely generated elsewhere pursuant to law do not acquire a
special character merely because they come to be deposited in the
superintendent's office in the ordinary course of business.
Accordingly, I find the Reports held by the county superintendent of
schools are not excluded under § 2.1-342(b)(4) from the Virginia
Freedom of Information Act.
______________________
Footnotes:
1. See Opinion to the Honorable William F. Watkins,
Jr., Commonwealth's Attorney for Prince Edward County, dated June 3,
1977, found in *Report of the Attorney General (1976-1977) at 315*;
*Opinion to the Honorable Mary A. Marshall, Member, House of
Delegates, dated March 22, 1977, Ibid, at 317*. bee Opinion to the
Honorable Virgil H. Goode, Jr., Member, Senate of Virginia, dated
August 13, 1979, found in Report
of the Attorney General (1979-1980) at 378.
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