Steven Colquitt, Open Records Officer for Oconee County School and for the Oconee County Board of Education, said he cannot provide the application letters for the 18 persons not selected to be the new school superintendent because the “District” does not have them.
Even if the “District” did have the records, he added, he would not provide them because the law only requires that he release the application materials for three persons the Board considered to be finalists.
Since the Board named only a sole finalist, Colquitt said, he only had to release the application materials for Melissa Butler, whom the Board has appointed as the new superintendent.
Colquitt did release Butler’s application materials when she was named the sole finalist on Sept. 2.
Board of Education Chair Michael Ransom told Oconee County Republicans on Sept. 22 that the Board had rejected all of the 18 applicants not selected and would have started a new search had Butler not accepted the Board’s offer.
Ransom also said the discussion with Butler leading up to her agreeing to her contract were handled by telephone and that there was no record of those discussions and negotiations. That would mean Butler accepted the contract without having been sent a copy by the Board.
Colquitt separately said he had no records of communication between Oconee County Schools or the Board of Education or even Georgia Leadership Associates, hired by the Board to assist in the search, and Butler.
Open Records Requests
I filed an open records request via email with Colquitt at 1:20 p.m. on Sept. 19, the day after the Board officially named Butler as the new school superintendent.
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| Colquitt At School Board Meeting 4/21/2025 |
I asked for “electronic copies of the application letters filed by the 18 unsuccessful applicants, or whatever number that is.”
Ransom said in July that 19 persons had applied for the position, but there is no record of that number.
Colquitt responded to my Sept. 19 email at 5 p.m. on Sept. 24.
“The District is not in possession of any responsive records,” Colquit wrote. “Moreover, if the District did have responsive records, O.C.G.A. § 50-18-72(a)(11) provides an exception for responding.”
“Specifically, the provision states that a school district would be required to provide, ‘…all documents concerning as many as three persons under consideration whom the agency has determined to be the best qualified for the position…’,” Colquitt wrote.
“It goes on to state,” he wrote, “‘The agency shall not be required to release such records of other applicants or persons under consideration, except at the request of any such person.’”
Code Cited
The law Colquitt cites, Section 50-18-72, is titled “When public disclosure not required.”
The full final section Colquitt cited states: “The agency shall not be required to release such records of other applicants or persons under consideration, except at the request of any such person.”
“Upon request, the hiring agency shall furnish the number of applicants and the composition of the list by such factors as race and sex.”
“The agency shall not be allowed to avoid the provisions of this paragraph by the employment of a private person or agency to assist with the search or application process.”
Nothing in the law prohibits the agency–in this case the Oconee County Board of Education and Oconee County Schools–from releasing the materials I requested.
I will file a new open records request on Monday for confirmation of the number of applicants and the composition of the list.
Ransom Before GOP
At the Sept. 22 meeting of the Oconee County Republican Party, Ransom, in response to questions about open records requested filed by The Oconee Enterprise, said “Sometimes they are asking for records we don’t have.”
Ransom then mentioned the hiring of Superintendent Butler.
“We were discussing her contract over the phone,” he said. “It is just a verbal exchange. There is no written record that we would have to turn in to somebody.”
Following that meeting of the Republican Party, I asked Enterprise Co-Publisher Michael Prochaska for any open records request that the paper had submitted regarding communication between the Board and Butler.
I also asked for Colquitt’s response.
Enterprise Co-Publisher Amanda Prochaska sent me a copy of an open records request that reporter Nathalee Simoneau filed on Sept. 8 asking for:
“Any and all communication between members of the Oconee County Board of Education and/or Oconee County Schools and/or Georgia Leadership Associates and Melissa Butler related to future employment in connection to the search for the superintendent of Oconee County Schools in 2025. This should include documents related to compensation and job description.”
At 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 11, Colquitt wrote to Simoneau: “there are no records responsive to your request.”
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