CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Lady Liberty Academy Charter School

CHARTER SCHOOL SCANDALS: Lady Liberty Academy Charter School

Lady Liberty Academy Charter School

by The Perimeter Primate

Letter from the NJ ACLU to the Executive Director of Lady Liberty Academy Charter School in Newark, New Jersey (June 4, 2010)

Re: Lady Liberty Academy Charter School; Open Government Violations
Dear Mr. Pinder,
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (“ACLU-NJ”) was recently contacted by an anonymous requester of public records about the open government practices of the Lady Liberty Academy Charter School (“Lady Liberty”). Since that time, the ACLU-NJ has been monitoring various requests for public documents submitted to the school and has reviewed the responses provided. I am writing to inform you that Lady Liberty has violated several provisions of the Open Public Records Act (“OPRA”), N.J.S.A. 42:1A-1 et seq. and the Open Public Meetings Act (“OPMA”), N.J.S.A. 10:4-6 et seq., and appears to have taken affirmative steps to obstruct access to public information.
Since the ACLU-NJ was first contacted in February 2010, we have heard from various sources about the disconcerting open government practices of Lady Liberty, including that requests for public records, such as Board of Trustees (“Board”) meeting minutes or school policies, are