Weymouth’s $350 Portal Fee Is Now an Appeal

About 30 records “may be responsive” while the search is still going, a $350 advance is demanded through the town’s records portal — and the appeal the Supervisor docketed as SPR26/4062 asks for a corrected estimate instead of a payment.

Weymouth’s paper trail starts with routing: the Town Clerk’s Office confirmed the request was uploaded to the town’s records request portal, and future requests were directed to the town’s NextRequest system. The School Department’s substantive answer arrived there on September 28, 2026, as request #26-4756: an initial search identified approximately 30 records that may be responsive, the search itself is not complete because hard-copy records remain unsearched, and the estimated fee for digital delivery of responsive records is $350 — 12 hours of review, segregation and redaction at $25 an hour ($300), plus one additional search hour and one hour of final review and preparation. Without payment within 20 business days, the letter says, the request will be considered withdrawn and the matter closed. Parent Data Force appealed under G.L. c. 66, § 10A on September 28, 2026 — and the Supervisor of Public Records docketed the appeal as SPR26/4062 on September 29.

The Numbers First

• $350. Fourteen billed hours — 12 of them review, segregation and redaction — for “approximately 30 files.”
• An incomplete search, a final price. The same letter says the search is not finished and quotes a $350 fee; the appeal’s central point is that an unfinished search cannot support a final estimate.
• 20 business days. The letter’s withdrawal clock — the only letter on the board that sets a pay-or-lose-it deadline.
• About 30 records potentially responsive, with no count yet of what the unsearched hard-copy files hold.
• 1 day to the docket. Appeal filed September 28; docketed SPR26/4062 and acknowledged September 29.
• $0 paid. The appeal asks that request #26-4756 be kept open while the appeal is pending.

What Weymouth Said — and What the Appeal Asks

The letter’s structure is the problem the appeal takes up: a search that is admitted to be incomplete, an advance fee calculated principally from redaction time on a record count the district itself calls approximate, and a twenty-day withdrawal deadline that would end the request for non-payment while the estimate’s own premises are still moving. The appeal asks the Supervisor to order a corrected estimate that separates and justifies each charge — including the “final review and preparation” hour — identifies the records or categories Weymouth intends to produce (including whether the requested existing log or index exists and will be produced), applies the correct municipal fee provisions in G.L. c. 66, § 10(d)(iii) and 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(m), addresses the requested public-interest fee waiver or reduction, provides rolling production where practicable, and keeps request #26-4756 open while the appeal is pending.

The full paper trail is public: the standardized request as sent (PDF), the district’s September 28 response and fee estimate (PDF), and the appeal as docketed (PDF); the September 23 acknowledgment and portal correspondence are attached to the appeal filing. Weymouth is copied as 950 C.M.R. 32.08(1)(g) requires, and the records request process in Weymouth 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: this appeal (SPR26/4062).
• Westwood — $520: 13 hours at $40 an hour, after its own acknowledgment capped the rate at $25 — appealed.
• 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

• A withdrawal clock is a pressure tactic, not a legal deadline. Massachusetts does not end your request because an invoice went unpaid while its premises are disputed — the appeal asks that the request be kept open, and the Supervisor’s docket is where that is decided.
• An incomplete search cannot price the job. If the district is still searching hard-copy files, the estimate is a moving number; ask for a corrected estimate before any payment.
• Redaction-heavy estimates can be tested. Twelve of fourteen hours here are review and redaction — a parent can ask what is being redacted, under what exemption, and why it takes 12 hours.
• Portal convenience does not change the fee statute. NextRequest may route the request, but the fees still answer to G.L. c. 66, § 10(d) and 950 C.M.R. 32.07.
• Same-week dockets are real. Filed September 28, docketed SPR26/4062 on September 29 — appeals move faster than district invoice cycles.

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Sources

• Town of Weymouth School Department, response through the NextRequest portal (request #26-4756), September 28, 2026 (self-hosted PDF published as received): approximately 30 records potentially responsive; search incomplete as to hard-copy records; fee estimate $350 (12 redaction/review hours at $25/hour = $300, plus 1 additional search hour and 1 final review/preparation hour); request deemed withdrawn without payment within 20 business days.
• Town of Weymouth, Town Clerk’s Office portal confirmation and acknowledgment correspondence, September 23, 2026.
• Parent Data Force, standardized public-records request to Weymouth Public Schools, sent September 23, 2026.
• Parent Data Force, appeal to the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records concerning the Weymouth response, filed September 28, 2026; docketed SPR26/4062, acknowledged September 29, 2026.
• Massachusetts Public Records Law, G.L. c. 66, § 10, including § 10(d)(iii) (municipal fee provisions), § 10(b)(ix) (appeal-rights notice), and § 10A; 950 C.M.R. 32.07(2)(m), 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.