The Arlington School Department has posted budget information on its Web site following a public-records request from Stephen Harrington of Arlington. The latest budget update, a lengthy .PDF document dates Aug. 26, is here >> 

According to a posting on a Web site called True Persons, a public-records request was made on Friday, Aug. 20, by a member of the site, seeking school-budget information as of the Aug. 3 School Committee meeting. (YourArlington is not linking to the Web site where this claim is made because the site has a policy aiming to prevent commercial use of its information.)

Diane Johnson, the schools' chief financial officer, confirmed to YourArlington on Aug. 25 that Harrington filed the request. Under state law, the administration had 10 days to respond to the plea. On Tuesday, Aug. 31, she did.

In a comment below his letter at WickedLocal headlined "Time is running out," a comment is posted under the name Stephen Harrington:

"Update. On Tuesday, I attended the budget subcommittee meeting and spoke during the public participation portion. At that time, Diane Johnson handed me a hardcopy of the newly formatted FY11 budget document and on Wednesday posted it to the APS website. The above Letter to the Editor was submitted before the Monday noon deadline and was sent to press before the Tuesday meeting.

"At this time, the APS has complied with the public records request; better late than never."
Johnson handed her letter to Harrington 11 days after his request.

YourArlington asked Harrington Sept. 5 whether the newly posted budget information reflects what he expected to see, or is there information that appears to be missing that he would wish to see. He has not yet responded.

In a related matter, Selectman Diane Mahon filed a public-records request in February for information about the fiscal 2011 budget as it then stood as well as deficit projections for that budget. She said recently she has had no official response to her request.