Cliff Buchan
News Editor

First they will. Now they won’t. When Nov. 1 rolls around, however, certain volunteers in Forest Lake Area Schools will be required to have criminal background checks, but at full school district cost.

The decision came Thursday, June 28 as the school board approved Policy 438 which addresses background checks for district employment and auxiliary volunteers. The policy has been in the works since late in 2006 to provide a consistent background check policy for all volunteers who assist district schools and Community Education programs.

The new policy involves no changes for prospective new hires in the district. They are required to have criminal background checks at their own cost as a requirement for employment. But the volunteer checks is new and a policy that aims at making sure children are safe at all time.

The board revisited Policy 438 for its second reading last week and adopted the document on a 7-0 vote.

The policy as approved came through the board’s policy committee and specified that the fee for background checks of volunteers be a shared expense with the district and the individual – a $10 fee for the volunteer.

Board member Rob Rapheal, who serves on the policy committee, spoke to the issue on June 28 and called the policy a good starting place to provide background checks for volunteers.

As proposed, volunteers needing background checks would be those who supervise students off campus or out of the building and those on overnight trips.

Volunteers who assist in the classroom would not need the background check. As a good starting point for the policy on volunteers, Rapheal said the matter could be revisited later. And that happened just seconds after the initial motion to adopt the policy was passed.

After approving the new policy, Board member Eric Langness offered an amendment to the policy striking language that called for volunteers to pay half the cost of the background checks. The amended policy spells out that the district will pay the full cost of the background checks.

Based on the relatively small amount of dollars facing the district, Langness said he could not support a change that would ask volunteers who are giving of their time to pay even $10 for the privilege to volunteer.

The motion found a second from Board member David Gay and passed on a 7-0 vote.

“I think we should pay for it,” added Board President Bill Bresin.

Ron Spies, director of administration and human resources, estimated the cost to the district at between $27,000 and $30,000.

Rapheal, interviewed later, said the intent of the policy is to provide a layer of protection for the students who are supervised off-campus or on overnight trips. The committee intent is to apply the policy to all volunteers involved with E-12 and Community Education programs, he said.

As part of the action, the board will delay full implementation until Nov. 1 to allow volunteers who step forward at the start of the school year more time to complete the one-time only criminal background check.

Rapheal said the decision to leave the fee cost sharing provision in the original policy stemmed from a lack of consensus by the 10-member policy committee.

But the full school board acted quickly to strike the provision from the policy.

Strategic plan

It was more than a year ago when school officials and numerous community residents ironed out a long-range strategic plan to help the district prepare for the future.

When that plan was presented in June of 2006 and approved by the school board, it was with a commitment to not let planning recommendations, fall by the wayside.

At last week’s meeting, the board kept to its promise by approving strategic planning steps for the 2007-2008 school year and reviewing planning efforts from the 2006-2007 school year.

The budget for the new school year is some $314,000 of project costs with some of the money earmarked for ongoing planning needs and $237,000 tied to new initiatives scheduled for implementation in this school year.

Some of the major items for the new school year include:

•Continuation of a district-wide bullying and harassment prevention program, $20,000.

•Establish and implement a comprehensive, proactive staff development process for all classified staff, $10,000.

•Assess performance evaluation procedures for all employee groups and explore other options that will provide incentives for improved performance, $25,000.

•Implement the district’s home-to-school/school-to-home communication plan at each school site, $30,000.

•Develop and implement a process to constantly review facilities and technology to ensure that they support the strategic plan, $55,000.

•Coordinate a consistent social/emotional support system for students, $60,000.

At the urging of Board member Joe Grafft, the administration was asked to give monthly updates of progress that is being made with the strategic plan.

While the reports do not need to be long, Grafft said it would be helpful to the planning process to have the board updated at each meeting on one segment of the ongoing process.

Lynn Steenblock, superintendent of schools, said the next major push for community involvement in strategic planning will come this fall.

On Oct. 5-6, the planning team will conduct two full-day meetings at TIES in Falcon Heights to review and possibly update the mission, beliefs, goals and parameters, complete an internal and external analysis, and consider reports on the performance evaluation process.

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