Norfolk Circuit Court Judge Norman A. Thomas issued a ruling Tuesday afternoon in the case of Virginian-Pilot Media Cos., LLC d/b/a The Virginian-Pilot v. City of Norfolk School Board. The case involves a Freedom of Information Act request made by the newspaper for information regarding the investigation of testing irregularities at Lafayette-Winona Middle School, the Executive Summary of which was obtained by the Pilot.
In a 15 page opinion, the court ruled that the documents are to be turned over to the newspaper, excluding those documents that are considered “personnel records” or “scholastic records.”
The ruling can be found here (pdf).
It will be interesting to see what information is actually turned over. Part of the argument by the Pilot was that personnel or scholastic record data should be redacted from the documents, presumably in order to get a better picture of what went on. The court ruled against the newspaper, saying that NPS may exclude “any individual record properly considered in toto or in part a scholastic record or a personnel record, containing information concerning identifiable individuals, under §2.2-3705.1(1) and 2.2-3705.4(1).”
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
I know they wouldn’t, but could the city withhold docs, claiming they are “personnel or academic”, even though the withheld aren’t?
Who oversees this process, the fox or the hens?
Yes, the NPS could do that – except I think from reading the opinion that the judge has already reviewed the documents, so he knows what should be turned over.
VA’s FOIA law has some exceptions in that regard, as I’ve learned from experience, it all depends on you phrase your request and who the person is that files it.
Yet another reason why we should save the FOIA advisory council. Best government agency I’ve ever worked with. I’ve asked questions like that before that weren’t relevant to my call and got a call back 4 hours later with an answer. I’ve never been so surprised.
Yes, there are exceptions. Interestingly enough, the judge had to come up with a definition of personnel record, since the code isn’t clear.
Agree on the FOIA advisory council.
I know. I wouldn’t have even know about it being on the chopping block if you hadn’t posted that article on facebook. Thanks for that one!