Westfield Bills $200 and Holbrook Produces Four Agreements: A Settlement Records Project Update

Westfield Public Schools priced the same request at $200 for about 120 pages and then asked the Supervisor of Public Records for thirty extra business days — the seventh docketed fee fight, SPR26/4117 — while Holbrook Public Schools quietly became the fourth district to produce records, sending four settlement and mediation agreements that now sit in student-information review.

The Numbers First

• 65 Massachusetts school districts have received the same standardized public-records request for final student settlement agreements.
• 16 districts have acknowledged receipt as of the evening of September 30, 2026.
• 27 have not responded at all.
• 9 appeals are now on file with the Supervisor of Public Records — seven carrying docket numbers, the newest SPR26/4117.
• $200 · 4 hours is Westfield’s fee estimate: 2 billable search hours at $25 plus 2 segregation/redaction hours at $75, on a district-reported set of about 120 responsive pages across roughly 25 documents.
• 4 settlement and mediation agreements arrived from Holbrook on September 30 — the project’s fourth production, published still at 1 pending student-information review (Tantasqua’s 45 pages).
• 34 districts now sit in the reader queue; Mendon-Upton Regional joined today on a reader suggestion, and Stoneham’s repeat ask made it a twice-requested district.

Westfield: Two Waived Hours, Then a $200 Invoice

Westfield Public Schools never acknowledged the September 23 request in words — it answered with arithmetic. The City Solicitor’s Office letter, sent September 30 by Records Access Officer Robyn Gay, reports the district’s own figures: roughly 25 responsive documents totaling approximately 120 pages, four hours of searching already logged, and an estimate of two more hours to review the pages. The first two search hours were waived under the municipal-population rule (Westfield’s population keeps the free-search allowance at two hours rather than four), so the invoice starts at hour three: 2 search hours at $25 plus 2 segregation/redaction hours at $75 = $200.

The same letter petitions the Supervisor of Public Records for 30 additional business days. Parent Data Force answered the same afternoon — a combined opposition to the petition and a Section 10A appeal of the fee estimate — and the Supervisor’s office docketed both actions the same day: the district’s fee-and-time petition as SPR26/4111 (determination due October 7) and the requester’s appeal as SPR26/4117 (determination due October 14). The Westfield card on the project board carries the fee letter, the petition acknowledgment, and the appeal letter as filed.

Holbrook: The Fourth Production

Holbrook Public Schools also skipped the fee stage — Co-Records Access Officer Bridget Baker confirmed receipt of the September 23 request and produced four scanned agreements the same day: a 2019–2022 settlement, two mediation agreements (June 27, 2023 and December 4, 2024), and one further settlement agreement. The copies went straight into the project’s student-information review queue, alongside Watertown’s 59 agreements and Pembroke’s full envelope; published productions remain 1 until that review clears them. The Holbrook card on the project board records the production and the review status.

Octobers Court: The Docket Calendar

Three determinations now cluster in mid-October: Somerset’s fee-and-time petition (SPR26/4099) and Westfield’s petition (SPR26/4111) both due October 7, Westfield’s appeal (SPR26/4117) due October 14. Every contested fee in the project now carries its docket number on the tracker — Dracut SPR26/4024, Natick SPR26/4044, Weymouth SPR26/4062, Westwood SPR26/4078, Quincy SPR26/4087, Somerset SPR26/4099, Westfield SPR26/4111/4117 — plus Amesbury and East Bridgewater awaiting their numbers. A parent can take any of those numbers straight to the Supervisor’s office and follow the determination, instead of waiting for a district to volunteer the outcome. The full board — fees, hours, productions, appeals, and the reader queue — updates as the responses arrive.

If your district is one of the twenty-seven that has not answered, the fastest way onto the board is to ask: request it by email and it joins the queue, or use the vote buttons on the board itself.

What This Means for Parents

• Fee math is checkable. Westfield’s own figures — about 25 documents, 120 pages, six total hours — are now public on the board, invoice attached. A parent can read the district’s arithmetic before paying it, and the Supervisor will read it too on October 7.
• Districts petition against their own requesters — again. Westfield is the seventh district to take a fee fight to the Supervisor while the requester waits. The petitions are public, the oppositions are public, and the docket numbers let anyone watch the outcomes.
• Free productions keep stacking up. Tantasqua, Pembroke, and Watertown produced the same request with no fee; Holbrook just became the fourth. A district claiming it cannot search without a four-figure invoice now has four counterexamples.
• Readers are steering the queue. Thirty-four districts are in the queue; Mendon-Upton joined on a reader suggestion alone, and Stoneham has now been asked twice by readers. A district can dodge a records request — it cannot dodge two.
• The board is the database. Docket numbers, fee itemizations, production counts, and the queue are all public on one page, updated the day evidence lands. The October 7 and October 14 determinations will appear there.

Sources

• Robyn Gay, Records Access Officer, Westfield Public Schools, City Solicitor’s Office letter of September 30, 2026 (fee estimate: approximately 120 responsive pages across about 25 documents; 2 search hours at $25 after the two-hour municipal waiver plus 2 segregation/redaction hours at $75 = $200; petition for 30 additional business days).
• Patrick Pierce, Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Public Records Division, SPR26/4111 petition acknowledgment, September 30, 2026 (determination due October 7, 2026).
• Owen Meech, Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Public Records Division, SPR26/4117 appeal acknowledgment, September 30, 2026 (determination due October 14, 2026).
• Parent Data Force, opposition to the Westfield fee-and-time petition and appeal under G.L. c. 66, § 10A, filed September 30, 2026.
• Bridget Baker, Co-Records Access Officer, Holbrook Public Schools, production email of September 30, 2026 (four settlement/mediation agreements; in student-information review).
• G.L. c. 66, §§ 10, 10A; 950 C.M.R. 32.08; Champa v. Weston Public Schools, 473 Mass. 86 (2015).