SEP 2 5 2007 Wilmar Union School District*

Recommendations 10

• R1
  Each public school district in Sonoma County should have at least one employee who is trained and authorized to access DOJ website within an official and specified schedule. This employee should fully understand the way in which information is to be communicated. Further, in the absence of this employee, a suitable alternate person or system should be in place to responsibly retrieve valuable information as it is posted. This system should also cover notices from the DOJ sent via U.S. Mail. Response: Our school finance clerk is designated as the person responsible for accessing all fingerprint information, and is trained in all aspects of the processes involved. The district seuperintendent/principal is trained as an alternate.
• R4
  School districts should consider changing their policies to require successful employee applicants to pay for their own fingerprinting and background responses from DOJ and FBI. There is at least $65,000 in 06-07 school district budgets for fingerprinting. As costs are shifted to paid employees, districts could use savings to fund costs for volunteers. Response: While we appreciate your thoughts on this matter, we have found that asking prospective employees to pay for this requirement may discourage some qualified candidates from making application.. Our Board and administration will take this recommendation under advisement.
• R5
  School districts should amend their policies, if needed, to allow for volunteers names to be public information and readily available so that a greater scrutiny is provided. Response: All volunteers are required to sign in each time they visit a school. The sign in sheets are available for public scrutiny.
• R7
  School districts should request criminal activity record from the Sonoma County Superior Court Records Division on any adult wanting to volunteer with students. This service is available at no cost to a district. Response: Thank you for the input. This is a resource that we will begin to use.
• R8
  Schools should routinely check out names of adult volunteers on Megan's Law website (a public posting of sexual predators) even if fingerprinting is scheduled, and always do so if no fingerprinting is scheduled for that volunteer. Response: This is a suggestion that we will institute as routine procedure.
• R9
  School districts should request FBI responses on all classified employees and volunteers that they do a DOJ response regardless of the time they have lived in California. The relatively small fee of $24 to get prior criminal activity from a national database seems justifiable, reasonable and the right action to take. Response: Our administration will take this recommendation under advisement.
• R10
  School districts should require fingerprinting for all adults (paid and volunteer) involved in athletic programs, overnight field trips, off-campus field trips, and any school sponsored student activity that occurs outside of the normal school day or hours. Response: This is present practice.
• R11
  School districts should implement provisions of Education Code Sections 33193 and 45125.2 requiring that certain independent contractors and employees of contractors undergo fingerprinting and background checks. Response: This is present practice.
• R13
  School districts should not allow new employees to begin work until all pre-employment requirements are met. Most specifically, this means that all fingerprinting and criminal history responses that are required must have been completed and properly evaluated. Response: This is present practice
• R15
  School districts should require all volunteers to sign an agreement that outlines behavior do's and don'ts and consequences if agreement terms are broken. Response: Thank you for the input. Our Board and administration will take this recommendation under advisement.