GOODRICH, MI - A Goodrich family is fuming over a huge charge the school district proposes for an electronic records search on their son.

Sherry Smith filed a Freedom of Information Act request in late May, looking for emails sent between April 2014 to the present regarding her son, or his initials, "but not limited to emails between Goodrich Area Schools employees, Genesee Intermediate School District employees, Michigan Department of Education employees, etc."

The price tag: $77,718.75. District Superintendent Michelle Imbrunone said it is based on the need to contract an employee to search through records due to cutbacks in recent years among staff.

"They know full well we won't pay that. What are we supposed to do?" Smith said. "Remortgage our house? In essence, they are denying our request to give me information about our child.

"I decided to request their inner office emails among staff related to my son for the past year," Smith said.

The request stemmed from her disagreeing with an individualized education program, or IEP, that would send her son to the Genesee Intermediate School District's Transition Center, after his graduation in 2015.

Smith's son has an intellectual disability, but she said he's been in classrooms with his classmates throughout his days in K-12 education.

In her search for information, Smith filed a FOIA request with the district and received a response from Imbrunone stating the work would cost her more than $77,000 "based on a check of the volume of message traffic and scan of activity from the logs of information available (including all deleted emails) over the past 14 months that could be relevant to your request."

Imbrunone said the cost estimate includes hiring a contracted employee solely to do what she called "an extensive search." It's been estimated the search would take up to 4,687.5 hours at the rate of $16.58 per hour.

"I thought it would just be better that I hire somebody so that we avoid overtime fees," she said.

The amount of time was based on the volume of messages that would need to be looked through and the amount of available staff, she said.

"I'm not even adding charges," said Imbrunone of the proposed hours and cost. The Smiths would have to put a 50 percent deposit down toward the estimated total, which she said had nothing to do with copying items. "I am not adding bodies to do that."

Kevin Smith, Sherry's husband, called the estimated bill "outrageous" in an email, and that "These are emails that, as parents, we should have been included or cc'd on -- all email conversations regarding our child in the first place."

Lisa McGraw, public affairs manager for the Michigan Press Association, said, "These costs are exorbitant, and I can't imagine who they are paying to do what to amount that.

"As a parent I would question how many messages about my child, if it was going to cost $77,000," she said. If the messages were about their child, "it doesn't appear anything would have to be redacted."

FOIA law in Michigan states a public body "shall not charge more than the hourly wage of its lowest-paid employee capable of searching for, locating, and examining the public records in the particular instance regardless of whether that person is available or who actually performs the labor."

The district may hire a contracted employee, according to the state law, but "costs shall not exceed an amount equal to 6 times the state minimum hourly wage rate."

New regulations going into effect July 1 limit government bodies to charging 10 cents or less for paper copies of records, as well as offering those requesting documents the chance to sue and potentially receive a lower fee.

Sherry Smith called the proposed charge by the district "a slap in the face."

In her FOIA response letter to Smith, Imbrunone said, "If, by chance, Goodrich Area Schools has misinterpreted any of your request, please contact me immediately for further clarification" or if they wish to appeal to refer to state law."