A Chamblee Middle School parent who asked for financial records from the school's PTSA says she received two cease-and-desist letters threatening legal action.
Margaret Wright Boylan, a parent new to the school, filed nine open-records requests with the DeKalb County School District (DCSD) seeking three years of PTSA financial records and officer names. PTA officials responded by accusing her of harassment, Rough Draft Atlanta first reported Thursday, Sept. 24.
Chamblee Middle School serves about 1,018 students in grades 6–8. Its PTSA reportedly has fewer than 50 members.
How the dispute started
Boylan said her inquiries began Aug. 13, after she found no officer names or financial information on the school's PTSA website. She emailed Region 1 PTA Council President Ashley Head and District 11 Georgia PTA Director Valencia Johnson because they were listed as contacts on a PTSA flyer.
When Boylan visited the school on Aug. 19, she said a school official told her there was "no listing of officers, no listing of electors" and that she could not access PTSA documents because the organization is a 501(c)(3).
Federal law requires tax-exempt nonprofits to provide copies of their three most recently filed IRS Form 990 returns upon request, according to the National Council of Nonprofits. However, the PTSA is a private organization, not a public agency, so Georgia's Open Records Act does not apply to it directly. Boylan's nine requests went to DCSD, not the PTSA itself.
Two letters, 13 days apart
Head sent a letter dated Aug. 27 to DeKalb School Board District 1 member Andrew Ziffer, Johnson, Chamblee Middle School Principal Brenton Williams, other Georgia PTA officials and DCSD's Legal Affairs office. The letter alleged Boylan's requests had moved beyond a legitimate inquiry and asked the district and Georgia PTA to review whether her conduct violated harassment policies.
Boylan said she did not learn about Head's letter until mid-September, when it surfaced in response to one of her open-records requests.
Then on Sept. 9, at an in-person PTSA meeting held to elect officers, Boylan was handed a notarized cease-and-desist letter signed by Johnson. The letter alleged Boylan had made statements about the PTSA that were false, misleading and harmful, and warned that the organization reserved all legal rights and remedies under applicable law. Neither letter identified which statements were allegedly false.
Boylan had published a Sept. 2 opinion piece in Rough Draft questioning whether the school still needed a PTSA, given an already active school foundation. That piece noted the PTSA's small membership and called its $15 membership fee a potential barrier for families.
District steps back
DCSD distanced itself from the dispute. In an email to Rough Draft, the district said the PTSA is a separate organization that operates independently and declined to comment further.
Neither Head nor Johnson responded to Rough Draft's questions. Ziffer referred questions to DCSD's communications department.
"I'm not sure why any private organization operating within a school shouldn't be transparent about its finances, considering they are asking for monetary support from parents," Boylan said.
No timeline for any formal review by DCSD or Georgia PTA has been announced.
