Publication Of School Salary Data Is Targeted; Board Seeks Change In FOIA Regulations

Earlier this year, when the Potomac News (now called the News &Messenger) published an Internet database listing all Prince WilliamCounty school employees by name and their respective salaries, theschool system was forced into an awkward position.

On one hand, school officials were upset at the disclosures ofpay for rank-and-file employees, including bus drivers, janitors andteachers. On the other hand, it was the school system that releasedthat information at the request of the local paper, citing thestate's Freedom of Information Act.

Now, the Prince William County School Board wants the state toalter the FOIA rules so that the salary of each employee does nothave to be released for public consumption. The School Board haslisted the proposal as one of its legislative priorities for nextyear's General Assembly legislative session.

In an interview, School Board Chairman Milton C. Johns (At Large)said some school employees, such as top administrative officials orhigh earners, should be fair game. But for others, such as non-administrators or those earning lower salaries, the public's rightto know does not outweigh the employees' right to privacy, he said.It is unclear what the parameters of the bill might be, but one ideais to keep from the public any salaries of "non-administrativeemployees and/or those employees earning under $100,000," he said.

"We got a fair amount of negative reaction among employees,"Johns said of the local paper's publication of the salaries. "Itseemed to us that it was an invasion of privacy and that the onlypurpose it could serve was to generate animosity among employees andbetween employees and the School Board and administration."

Susan Svihlik, the News & Messenger executive editor, did notreturn phone calls or an e-mail seeking comment.

Bonnie Klakowicz, president of the Prince William EducationAssociation, a teachers union in the county, said the organizationhas not taken a firm position on the School Board's lobbyingefforts. When the information was released, Klakowicz was an artteacher at Leesylvania Elementary School, where some teachers wereupset, she said. "I do think it's a matter of privacy, but we arepublic employees, and people need to know," she said.

School Board Vice Chairman Grant Lattin (Occoquan) said hequestions what public service is provided when a low-level teacher'ssalary is revealed along with the identity of the teacher. Besides,he said, the public has access to the county's pay scale.

"That's why the balance leans toward disclosing it for senioremployees. They are held more accountable to the employees and thereare larger sums of money," said Lattin, who is also acting directorof the general litigation division for the office of the judgeadvocate general. "I know at the federal level, FOIAs [on specificsalaries] can be withheld."