The Akron Public Schools teachers union and a school board member are raising concerns about transparency around Superintendent Michael Robinson’s use of “disappearing” emails.
The emails were sent using Gmail’s “confidential mode,” according to pictures of the emails shared with Ideastream Public Media by the Akron Education Association. According to Google, those emails cannot be forwarded, copied, printed or downloaded, and can have a message expiration date set, on top of requiring a verification code by text to open messages.
The union in a Dec. 4 statement called the use of “disappearing emails” a “deliberate attempt to evade scrutiny” by the superintendent and his administration.
“The use of disappearing emails to manage public records raises serious questions about the Superintendent’s commitment to open governance,” the union wrote. “Public institutions, particularly schools, have a duty to operate in a manner that ensures accountability to their employees, families and the communities they serve.”
Under Ohio’s public records law, emails are public records. Public entities like school districts are required to adopt a records retention schedule that allows records to be destroyed after a period of time, according to Ohio’s Sunshine Law Manual; Akron’s retention schedule requires "correspondence" to be kept for a minimum of one year.
The school district in a statement Friday morning said Gmail’s confidential mode does not destroy records.
“While these emails may have limitations on forwarding, copying, or downloading, records of their existence and content are retained within the district’s email system,” the district wrote. “The decision to utilize Gmail's confidential mode in certain communications was made to address the sensitivity of some discussions, including personnel matters and preliminary budget considerations.”
A Nov. 6 email from Robinson, shared with Ideastream Public Media by the teachers union, shows a Nov. 13 expiration date, and discusses how the district is going about considering cuts to its budget. Robinson expressed concern about the district’s chief financial officer, Stephen Thompson, discussing the budget at a meeting without Robinson present.
“As we move forward, I want us to be on the same page. Reductions and reorganization will be at my discretion, as there are areas I am already looking at,” Robinson wrote. “Thus, any conversations being had or discussed about what reductions will look like will come from me.”
Pastor Gregory Harrison, an Akron Board of Education member, said during a Nov. 25 meeting he had concerns about the administration's use of the confidential emails.
“You cannot send an email that you cannot download, you cannot print,” Harrison said. “I'm a public official. You can't send me an email that dissolves because not just the school district, but I, have a responsibility and an obligation to save records. I cannot live in someone else's paranoia.”
Harrison declined to elaborate further on those objections in an email Thursday.
The board declined to approve a five-year forecast the district is required to provide to the state during the Nov. 25 meeting, because they said they lacked the information they needed to make an informed decision.
While the district did defend its use of Gmail’s confidential mode in its statement, it also wrote that it will “evaluate and update internal communication practices to ensure they align with both legal requirements and our commitment to open governance.”
While emails do disappear from recipients’ emails with Gmail’s confidential mode, it does not automatically delete messages from the sender’s sent mail folder, Google said in a statement in a Forbes.com article on the feature.
