(The Sentinel) — Multiple complaints of Kansas Open Records Act (KORA) violations by the Kansas State Board of Education (KSBOE) have been received by the office of Attorney General Kris Kobach. As a result, his office has sent a letter to the board advising of his office’s investigation.

The attorney general’s letter reads, in part:

Our office has received six (6) complaints alleging that the Kansas Board of Education violated the Kansas Open Records Act (KORA).’ Kathryn Vander Griend (PP-25-000413, PP-26-000113, PP-26-000132 and PP-26-000144) submitted four (4) complaints alleging that Board failed to timely respond to her requests and that records were wrongfully withheld. As a requested remedy, Ms. Vander Griend selected to receive requested records.

Rachel Warren (PP-25-000414) submitted a complaint alleging that her request for records was improperly denied. As a requested remedy, Ms. Warren selected to receive requested records. 

Dave Trabert (PP-26-000112) submitting a complaint alleging that the Board is charging excessive fees for KORA requests. As a requested remedy, Mr. Trabert selected “[o]ther: Require the agency to publish KORA fees that comply with state law, and issue refunds to anyone who was overcharged.”

State Board member Debby Potter tells The Sentinel that “Friday Notes”, communications between Education Commissioner Randy Watson and board members, which Potter feels should be released to the public, is only one troubling example of what she sees as a lack of transparency at KSBE:

“The Board, through KSDE General Counsel, was provided a copy of a letter from the Attorney General’s office that stated that they had received numerous complaints of KORA violations. The Friday Notes was only a portion of the information that was requested in these open records. While the letter referenced the assigned alphanumeric reference for each KORA complaint, I do not recall that it specified the details of each of the complaints.

“I have been attempting for a few months now to have the State Board simply vote to have certain documents that I knew were referenced in these KORA complaints prepared for public consumption (set up in a standard format that is easily and appropriately redacted). The three I chose to focus on were the Friday Notes, the contracted Board legal counsel invoices, and the Board members’ pay. I only asked that we act to make these documents available in a transparent manner, accessible without the need to do the now expensive ($271/mth) monthly KORA requests.

“What I believe is key is that some Board members are making the argument that these documents are already available to all the Board members and also allowable for us to share without the need for a KORA request. There seems to be a large disconnect in communication between the Board, the Board legal counsel, and KSDE on the veracity of this position, and I was simply seeking through the motion I presented to clarify the position of this on the Board (that these documents would be transparent for us to share).

Debby Potter, courtesy Kansas Department of Education

“As for your request to understand more about the Friday Notes specifically, I asked the Commissioner early in 2025 if I could share my copy of the Friday Notes with the local board members in my district. He asked me not to share and explained that he used these for his private communications between the Board and his office.

“I brought out in a meeting [I believe it would have been in March 2025 concerning the Vanderbilt Pre-K Study results] that the Friday Notes had become problematic for me. While the Board had voted it did not want to delay a decision to fund pre-K until the following month to allow conversation on the findings of that study, the Friday Notes were used after that to respond to the concerns I had raised about the study. The result was that the information presented was not fully accurate, yet I was unable to participate in the conversation, because for me to respond to the Board would have violated KOMA.

“If the Friday Notes had been publicly consumable with this information, constituents would have been able to have an open conversation about the accuracies and/or inaccuracies of the issue.”

We reached out to KSBOE Board Chair Cathy Hopkins for comment. She did not respond.