July 17, 1974

THE HONORABLE GLENN B. MCCLANAN
Member, House of Delegates

74-75 580

This will acknowledge receipt of your recent letter in which you inquire as to whether the Freedom of Information Act would require public disclosure of a report evaluating the performance of a city school superintendent. The information forwarded with your inquiry indicates that the report in question was a composite report of individual evaluations made by members of the Virginia Beach City School Board.

Section 2.1-342(a), Code of Virginia (1950), as amended, requires public disclosure of all official records, reports, or other documents made or received by public bodies in performance of their lawful functions. Section 2.1-342(b)(3), however, provides that certain records shall be exempt from the general rule of disclosure as follows:

"(b) The following records are excluded from the provisions of this chapter: * * *

"(3) State income tax returns, medical and mental records, scholastic records and personnel records, except that such access shall not be denied to the person who is the subject thereof." (Emphasis supplied.)

A report which evaluates the performance of a city school superintendent, who is unquestionably the employee of the city school board, is clearly a personnel record of the school board requiring the confidentiality provided by 2.1-342(b)(3) recited above.

I am, therefore, of the opinion that a report evaluating the performance of a city school superintendent, prepared by city school board members, is exempt from the general records disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.