From: Ahmed Ismail [mailto:ahmed@portraitplacegpw.com]

Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 11:33 AM

To: Dean, Jon

Cc: Niehaus, Gary (Home); 'Judy Gafa'; Roeske, Daniel (GPPSS); Summerfield, Brian (GPPSS); 'Valente, Lois (GPPSS)'; 'Weertz, Margaret'; 'Pangborn, Cindy'; Fenton, Christian

Subject: Allowing Full Student Names to Be Published

Jon et al,

Bottom line--this is not a legal issue but a policy issue, a policy that was drafted before colleges started doing such extensive internet search on their student applicants.

I will prepare a resolution directing the Policy Committee to draft a policy similar to those of our like districts and will provide everyone with the forms our like districts are using at their annual registrations for parent signature so that it can be discussed at our next meeting, giving the admin enough time to have it in place for the start of the 15-16 school year.

Thank you for answering my questions.

Ahmed

________________________________

From: Dean, Jon

Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 9:53:46 AM (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US &

Canada)

To: ahmed@portraitplacegpw.com; School Board

Cc: gcniehaus52@gmail.com; Fenton, Christian

Subject: Response to Inquiry Regarding Student Names

Ahmed,

You asked the questions below (cut and pasted from your original email) regarding the publications of student first and last names.

I spoke to Gary about this issue this morning.  He agrees that this is a policy committee issue and should be referred there.

In terms of your specific questions below here are our (Chris and my)

thoughts:

1.        In terms of the legality of what other districts are doing we are

hesitant to answer.  Neither of us are lawyers and we do not feel that asking our legal counsel to review another district's practice is a good use of GPPSS funds.  We both do know that many districts, including Troy and Bloomfield Hills, do publish first and last names of students.  Both of us have a belief that it is legal (with careful consideration of FERPA

implications) in some circumstances, but that is a belief, rather than a legal opinion.

2.       Neither of us were on the policy committee when the Policy and AG's

for 7540.02 District Web Page were developed.  Based on the notation on the NEOLA site that specific AG was last revised on 4/24/12, but neither of us know if that revision including any changes to the student name provision.

Based on Chris' recollection this specific AG was developed under Dr. Klein and Mr. Warras prior to 2009.  Neither of us know what role (if any) legal counsel played in the development of this policy and AG.

We've carbon copied the entire BOE on this email so that all BOE members have this information.

Chris and Jon

M. Jon Dean

Deputy Superintendent for Educational Services Grosse Pointe Public School System

313.432.3015      jon.dean@gpschools.org<mailto:jon.dean@gpschools.org>

twitter: @jdeanlearner

Jon,

As you know, the issue of us not sharing the successes of our students by providing their last names in our publications has been a real concern to me.

I know you recently sent me a form the system uses.  I would like bottom line answers to these two questions:

1.  Is what Bloomfield Hills and Troy do in using the student last names illegal in any way?

2.  Is this fact that GP doesn't share the students' last names an internal policy issue or something that our legal counsel initiated?

If you could please answer the two questions above, it would be most appreciated.  Once I have your answers, I will know how to tackle the issue so that our kids are getting the same attention on Google searches that their counterparts in Troy and Bloomfield Hills enjoy (and most college admissions offers are now checking in their application review process).

Best wishes to you and your family for an enjoyable Memorial day weekend,

Ahmed