As a public agency, St. Helena Unified School District adheres to the California Public Records Act (CPRA) which requires that governmental records shall be disclosed to the public, upon request, unless there is a specific reason not to do so. Requests for public records of the District are processed by the Superintendent's Office. This webpage provides community members with an efficient way to submit requests for records and access previously requested records. 

The CPRA defines public records as including “any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained” by the District. For a record to be disclosable under the CPRA, it must be related “to the conduct of the public’s business” and “prepared, owned, used, or retained by” the District. Student records are not considered public records. The CPRA does not require the District to create or prepare a record or document that does not exist at the time of the request. If producing records with requested information requires data compilation, extraction, or programming, the CPRA provides that the requester bears the cost of producing the record. The district will advise the requestor of the cost, if any, involved in producing a record that requires data compilation.

The CPRA recognizes exemptions that permit withholding records from disclosure. Common exemptions include personnel or medical records, preliminary drafts or memoranda that are not retained in the ordinary course of business, investigative records, and records that are subject to a privilege such as an attorney-client communication. Should a portion of a disclosable record contain confidential information, the District will redact such information before it is disclosed.

Requests for public records can be emailed to publicrecords@sthelenaunified.org or mailed to the following address:

Public Records Act Requests
Attn: Public Records
St. Helena Unified School District
465 Main Street
St. Helena, CA  94574

Upon receiving a request, the District will first determine whether it has responsive public records. Within ten (10) days, the District will provide an initial response that includes:

• whether the District requires an extension of time to determine if there are records responsive to the request; and/or
• an estimated date on which the disclosable records will be available.

Most records can be provided electronically. For those that are not available in electronic format or for records specifically requested in hard copy, the District charges 15 cents per page for duplication of paper copies as authorized by Government Code section 6253. Once the records are gathered, the requestor will be notified of the cost, and copies will be made available after the applicable fee is paid.