CONWAY, Ark. — The Conway School Board has drawn the ire of parents and community members after changes were made to the district's email retention policy.
Jessica Miller is one of those upset with the change.
"I do love the district, I went to school there and I feel like there are a lot of strengths," Miller, with two kids in the district, said.
With pride comes a want to be better, something Miller said needs to happen with the board.
"To us, it feels like what that policy means is that there's something to hide," she said.
Emails are now kept for just three days, and during Tuesday's board meeting, they addressed that change.
"The policy was changed because of the harassment we were and still are getting from FOIA requests," one member said.
A Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request, is a record request that can be done by anybody to get access to information. That board member went on to say that from October 15 to December 12, they received 69 requests for records.
"I can conceive of no purpose to have such a rapid destruction of records other than to interfere with the ability of people to request those records," Robert Steinbuch, a law professor at the William H. Bowen school of law, said.
Steinbuch explained that the change in policy doesn't violate any laws, but it's not a common practice.
"People are entitled to transparency, they're entitled to know what their government agencies are doing," he said. "That includes those people that don't like what their government entities are doing."
Miller isn't the only one upset. Julia McDonald spoke for many parents and teachers who fear retaliation if they were to speak out.
"We should be able to trust what our school board members tell us," McDonald said. "Right now, we're just not there."
We took those concerns to the district office for comment and were told that Superintendent Jeff Collum would be the one to comment, though he was not there at the time.
We left our contact information, and have not heard back as of 6:00 p.m. Wednesday evening.
For Miller, though, she'd like an answer— not just for herself, but for her children in the district going forward.
"I don't see how we can accomplish anything as a team, in terms of, you know, a team that's here to protect our children and make sure that the future is bright for them," Miller said. "There's just no way for us to do that if we can't trust them."