Westwood Quoted Itself $25 an Hour, Then Billed $40

The town’s own September 23 acknowledgment capped the rate at $25. Six days later its fee notice billed 13 hours at $40 an hour — $520 — and put the request on hold pending payment. The appeal went up the same day the bill arrived.

Westwood’s request lived in the town’s FOIADirect system as request #2026-0280, with reviewer Leeann Plouffe named on both letters. The September 23, 2026 acknowledgment set the terms: hourly work on the request would not exceed $25. The September 29 fee estimate then quoted the entire calculation in one line — 13 estimated hours at $40.00 per hour, $520.00 — and placed the request on hold pending payment. Parent Data Force appealed to the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records the same day, September 29, 2026, under G.L. c. 66, § 10A(a) and 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1).

The Numbers First

• $520. The second-highest fee on the board, behind only Dracut’s $2,950.
• $40 an hour — above the $25 rate every other district on the board bills, and above the $25 cap Westwood’s own acknowledgment stated six days earlier.
• 13 hours, one line. The notice’s entire calculation is “School Department — 13.00 estimated hours — $40.00 per hour — $520.00”: no record count, no page count, no task breakdown, no derivation of the 13 hours, no description of the work, no legal basis for the labor category.
• On hold. The request sits unpaid and unproduced pending the fee — the appeal asks that it be kept open while the Supervisor reviews.
• Same-day appeal. Bill and appeal share September 29; no docket number had issued as of publication.

What Westwood Said — and What the Appeal Asks

The fee notice supplies a total and nothing behind it — which is why the appeal leads with the number the district already put in writing. The first ground is that $40 an hour exceeds the municipal rate cap absent the prior approval the notice never mentions; the acknowledgment’s own $25 statement is the exhibit for it. The appeal asks the Supervisor to order a corrected estimate at a lawful rate with an actual itemization, a reasonable production timeframe under G.L. c. 66, § 10(b)(vi), any required burden explanation and reasonable narrowing assistance, the appeal-rights notice required by § 10(b)(ix), consideration of the requested public-interest fee waiver or reduction — and that request #2026-0280 be kept open while the appeal is pending.

The full paper trail is public: the standardized request as sent (PDF), the September 29 fee estimate (PDF), and the appeal as filed (PDF); the September 23 acknowledgment stating the $25 cap is attached to the appeal filing. Westwood is copied as 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1)(g) requires, and the records request process in Westwood is now a pending matter at the Supervisor of Public Records.

How It Compares

The running board, cheapest to most expensive:

• Tantasqua Regional — $0: 45 pages produced, no fee, the project’s first production.
• Berlin-Boylston — $75, reduced to $50 after the district accepted a narrowed request on September 29.
• North Attleborough — $100: six hours, capped by the superintendent as a cooperative accommodation; a full public-interest waiver was requested September 29.
• Pentucket — $150: six hours itemized to the half-hour.
• Natick — $275: about 300 pages, two search hours, three attorney-review hours, and a 30-day petition — appealed (SPR26/4044).
• Peabody — $300: fourteen hours, invoice with the letter.
• East Bridgewater — $350: about six documents, a two-rate estimate, and its own 30-day petition — appealed.
• Weymouth — $350: a portal fee with a twenty-day withdrawal clock — appealed (SPR26/4062).
• Westwood — $520, 13 hours at $40 an hour after its own $25 cap: this appeal.
• Amesbury — $750: thirty hours at the statutory ceiling — appealed September 23.
• Dracut — $2,950, 120 hours for 45 already-identified agreements: appealed (SPR26/4024).

One district produced records for nothing. Ten priced the identical request from $50 to $2,950. Six of those prices are now before the Supervisor of Public Records. The whole board — fees, hours, productions, appeals: Massachusetts Student Settlement Records Project.

What This Means for Parents

• Get the rate capped in writing. Westwood’s acknowledgment set $25 an hour on September 23; when the fee notice billed $40, the cap became the appeal’s first exhibit.
• A bare total is not an estimate. Thirteen hours with no task list is a number, not an itemization — and the difference is exactly what G.L. c. 66, § 10(b)(viii) requires districts to provide.
• Your own correspondence is evidence. Every acknowledgment, portal message and email in a records fight can become an exhibit; save all of it.
• Rate caps beat rate arguments. The question is not whether $520 feels high but whether $40 an hour is lawful for this work — a narrower, winnable question.
• Same-day appeals keep requests open. Filed September 29 within hours of the bill; the request stays alive while the Supervisor reviews.

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Sources

• Westwood Public Schools, fee estimate notice, September 29, 2026 (reviewer Leeann Plouffe; FOIADirect request #2026-0280; self-hosted PDF published as received): 13.00 estimated hours at $40.00 per hour = $520.00; request placed on hold pending payment.
• Westwood Public Schools, acknowledgment, September 23, 2026, stating the hourly rate shall not exceed $25.
• Parent Data Force, standardized public-records request to Westwood Public Schools, sent September 23, 2026.
• Parent Data Force, appeal to the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records concerning the Westwood response and fee estimate, filed September 29, 2026; docket pending as of publication.
• Massachusetts Public Records Law, G.L. c. 66, § 10, including § 10(b)(vi) (production timeframe), § 10(b)(viii) (itemized estimates), § 10(b)(ix) (appeal-rights notice), § 10(d) (fee provisions), and § 10A; 950 C.M.R. 32.07, 32.08.
• 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, 33 awaiting first response, 3 routed or re-sent, 4 fee-estimate responses, 6 appeals filed, 1 production published.

The project is parent-led and grows by request. If your district is not on the tracker yet, write to the project and it becomes another row on the board.