FAYETTEVILLE - The Fayetteville-Perry Board of Education looked at changes in the way school districts handle background checks at the December board of education meeting.
House Bill 190 became effective Nov. 14 and requires that every teacher needs a federal Criminal Records Check as well as a State Criminal Records Check every time a teacher goes in to renew his or her teaching license, or every five years. The check is required regardless of how long the teacher has lived in Ohio.
The bill is a result of a growing number of cases across the United States that involve teachers who commit crimes after they are hired. By mandating periodic background checks, school districts can check up on their teachers to make sure they have not committed crimes that would affect their ability to teach. All school employees, from transportation departments to food service, must have a background check.
A federal Criminal Records Check costs approximately $31, and a state Criminal Records Check costs $22. All criminal record check costs are handled by individual school districts. The district holds the right to charge an applicant for the cost of the check. Fayetteville Superintendent Roy Hill feels that requiring background checks every five years would increase student safety, but that a check would be unnecessary in a rural area like Brown County.
"I think it's overkill to make everyone do it, especially in smaller districts where you know everyone," Hill said. "In bigger districts in the city where you don't know who you're hiring, it would be needed."
Also, the additional costs could hurt smaller districts. The Brown County Educational Service Center in Georgetown recently spent approximately $6,000 to receive new equipment that would be necessary to process federal Criminal Records Check. All record checks are then completed through the Mahoning County Education Service Center in Bodman, Ohio. The equipment is expected to arrive some time soon.
House Bill 190 also established that districts can begin to charge tuition for all-day kindergarten. Hill said that there had not been a formal law stating if it was legal or not to charge for all-day kindergarten tuition, and that many districts were already charging.
"Fayetteville does not currently require all day kindergarten tuition," Hill said. "We haven't even started looking at that yet."
The bill also established that Ohio Elementary School Achievement testing can now take place over two weeks instead of one to help make the testing less stressful on students.
In other business:
• Fayetteville Board of Education accepted a contract with Colonial Post and Fence for $18,654 to put fencing around the softball field.
•The Board of Education accepted the state mandated changes to the anti-bullying policy.
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