MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The Monongalia County school board will charge 35 cents a page for records it provides to the public in an electronic format.

The board unanimously approved the fee Tuesday, though some open-government advocates had objected.

Superintendent Frank Devono says while records can be stored on disks or flash drives, the assembly is still done by an employee going through paper documents.

The Dominion Post reported Wednesday that the district already charges 40 cents per page for hard copies.

West Virginia University law professor Pat McGinley had argued that public agencies can charge only for the cost of reproducing documents, meaning paper and ink.

He argued a digital copy carries no reproduction costs, unless the agency supplies the disk.