Pembroke Produced, Quincy and Amherst Sent Fees: A Settlement Records Project Update

The project’s second full production of settlement records arrived free of charge — while Quincy answered the same request with a $450 fee, its own petition for thirty extra business days, and a fresh docket at the Supervisor of Records. Every docketed appeal now carries its SPR number on the board.

The Numbers First

• 65 Massachusetts school districts have received the same standardized public-records request for final student settlement agreements.
• 17 districts have acknowledged receipt as of September 29, 2026.
• 30 have not responded at all.
• 7 fee-related appeals are now on file with the Supervisor of Public Records — the newest two docketed the same day they were contested.
• 2 full fee responses arrived September 29 alone: Quincy at $450 and Amherst-Pelham at $100.
• 2 productions of records have now arrived without any fee — Tantasqua Regional’s 45 pages on September 25, and Pembroke’s full envelope on September 29, now in review before publication.

Pembroke Handed Over the Records

On September 29, 2026, Superintendent Erin Obey of the Pembroke Public Schools sent electronic copies of “any settlement agreements entered into by the Pembroke Public School from 9/18/21-present day.” No fee estimate. No invoice. No petition for more time. The production covers the project’s entire records window, and it is the second time a district has simply handed over the records in response to the standardized request — the first was Tantasqua Regional on September 25.

The copies are now in the project’s review queue for student personally identifiable information. The reviewed set will publish on the records library of the Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project when that review is complete; the tracker’s Pembroke card already records the production as received.

Quincy: A $450 Fee, a District-Filed Petition, and a Same-Day Answer

Quincy Public Schools took a different path. A September 29 response from Daniel Cosgrove, the district’s Director of Human Resources and Records Access Officer, estimates about 375 responsive pages and arrives at a $450 fee: six hours of search time at $25 an hour ($150), plus four billable hours of review after the two-hour waiver, at $75 an hour ($300). The letter proposes to route all review through counsel at a rate the district itself says is normally around $270 an hour.

The same letter announced that Quincy had filed both a fee petition and a time petition with the Supervisor of Public Records seeking thirty additional business days — the same extension East Bridgewater and Natick requested last week. The Supervisor’s office docketed the matter as SPR26/4087 and acknowledged the petition the same day.

Parent Data Force answered the same day with a single filing that does two jobs: it opposes Quincy’s fee-and-time petition, and it appeals the district’s response under G.L. c. 66, § 10A(a). The filing notes that the request expressly excludes student identifying information and cites Champa v. Weston Public Schools, 473 Mass. 86 (2015), which requires redaction of protected information rather than wholesale withholding. It also points out that Quincy’s own petition bills review time against “each page of the invoices sought in the request” — a request for invoices the requester never made. Both Quincy documents and the opposition-and-appeal filing are linked from the Quincy card on the project board.

Amherst-Pelham: $100 and an October 2 Date

Amherst-Pelham Regional School District sent a fee response the same day: six estimated hours, four billable after the two-hour waiver, at $25 an hour — $100 total — with completion anticipated by October 2, 2026. Records ship on payment. The district’s invoice is linked from its card.

Westwood’s Appeal Is Docketed

Westwood’s Section 10A appeal of its $520 fee estimate — 13 hours at $40 an hour against a district acknowledgment that capped the rate at $25 — is now docketed as SPR26/4078, acknowledged by the Supervisor’s office on September 29. Every docketed appeal in the project — Dracut SPR26/4024, Natick SPR26/4044, Weymouth SPR26/4062, Westwood SPR26/4078, Quincy SPR26/4087 — now displays its docket number directly on the Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project board, so each contested fee can be followed at the Supervisor’s office by number.

North Attleborough: Asking for a First

North Attleborough’s $100 fee estimate already reflects substantial cooperation — the district reduced its anticipated ten-plus hours of work to six for the estimate. On September 29, Parent Data Force asked the district to go one step further and waive the remaining $100 entirely, noting that the district would be the first in the project to assess a fee and then voluntarily waive it in full in recognition of the public-interest purpose of the work. The request is pending.

A Separate Track: Weston

In a matter separate from the sixty-five-district settlement-agreement project, a reconsideration request went to the Supervisor of Public Records on September 24 in a Weston Public Schools records case, docketed SPR26/3432, and the Supervisor’s office has replied. That dispute — a single-employee records matter with its own fee history and its own precedent argument — will get its own write-up rather than a line in the settlement-records ledger.

What This Means for Parents

• Some districts will simply produce. Pembroke is the second district to fill the request in full without charging anything. If your district claims the request is unanswerable without a four-figure fee, the tracker now holds two counterexamples.
• Fee itemization invites scrutiny. Quincy’s $450 rests on six search hours and four billable review hours at $75 — with its own letter citing invoices that were never requested. Ask for the itemization, then check the math against the request you actually sent.
• Districts can petition for more time, and you can oppose. Three districts have now asked for thirty extra business days in a week. Oppositions are filed the same day; the docket numbers are on the board.
• Docket numbers are now first-class data. Every contested fee carries its SPR number, so a parent can track the Supervisor’s determination directly instead of waiting for a district to volunteer it.
• A waiver ask costs nothing. North Attleborough reduced its own estimate once; a full-waiver request is pending and would be the project’s first. Districts that cooperate deserve to be named for it.

Sources

• Erin Obey, Superintendent, Pembroke Public Schools, email of September 29, 2026, attaching electronic copies of settlement agreements entered into from September 18, 2021 to present.
• Daniel Cosgrove, Director of Human Resources/Records Access Officer, Quincy Public Schools, response letter of September 29, 2026, estimating $450 (6 search hours at $25; 4 billable review hours at $75) on approximately 375 responsive pages, with fee and time petitions filed the same day.
• Patrick Pierce, Senior Clerk, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division, “SPR26/4087 Petition Acknowledgment,” September 29, 2026.
• Parent Data Force, “SPR26/4087 — Requester Opposition to Quincy Fee/Time Petition and Section 10A Appeal,” sent September 29, 2026.
• Jenna Clemenzi, Staff Attorney, Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth Public Records Division, “SPR26/4078 Appeal Acknowledgment,” September 29, 2026.
• Meghan Dushko, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, Amherst, Pelham, and Amherst-Pelham Regional School Districts, fee response of September 29, 2026: 6 estimated hours, 4 billable at $25/hour, $100 total, invoice attached.
• Parent Data Force, full-fee-waiver request to North Attleborough Public Schools, September 29, 2026.
• Massachusetts Public Records Law, G.L. c. 66, § 10; G.L. c. 66, § 10A(a); 950 C.M.R. 32.00.
• Champa v. Weston Public Schools, 473 Mass. 86 (2015).
• Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project tracker, current as of September 29, 2026: 65 districts, 17 acknowledged, 30 awaiting first response, 3 routed or re-sent, 5 response/fee-estimate, 7 appeals filed, 1 production published.

The project is a parent-led transparency effort, and it runs on reader requests. If your district is not on the tracker yet, request it.