CAMANO: School board reviews rules on open public meetings, public records requests
Libby Williams reports from a special Stanwood-Camano School Board meeting on Thu., Dec. 11, 2025 for the Stanwood Camano News. Read the whole story.
Summary by Perplexity AI
The Stanwood‑Camano School Board held a Dec. 11 study session on Washington’s Open Public Meetings Act, Public Records Act, records retention, and school common law, led by attorney Charles Leitch. Communications Director and public records officer Evan Caldwell noted the district received 115 public records requests in 2024‑25, far above normal and part of a national increase. Leitch explained how electronic systems and social media complicate defining and tracking public records, stressing that requests must be reasonably specific. Board members learned that emails, texts, and some social media content can be records and said they now better understand the need to use district accounts and avoid creating unnecessary records.
They Said It
Miranda Evans noted that anytime there is a public records request for a school email, Caldwell is able to go in and get those.
“What (Caldwell) is looking for from us is text messages, anything you have in your personal email that you maybe didn’t put in the right email on accident, your social media stuff,” she said.
Board member Steve King commented on what he learned from the number of requests during the 2024-25 school year.
“There was a whole bunch of public records requests, and I’ve been advised, including by Evan, to not create public records unnecessarily,” he said.
“I didn’t understand how significant that was, and to preferably just do everything on the district email account … it’s really a stressful thing, so I should have paid attention to Evan in the first place.”
