School Board wrap-up: Volunteers, peers and many awards

Tuesday's school board meeting began as it usually does, with the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance. But it also included a special appearance - the Presentation of Colors by Mosley High School's J.R.O.T.C. program.

Four cadets presented the colors and then shared their experience in the program. It's been named to the top ten percent of programs in the southeast. It's the only program in Florida with the distinction and is number four in the southeastern region.

The board also thanks donors and supporters of the newly reinstated driver's education program, which included Bill Cramer Chevrolet and the district's maintenance department.

Program coordinator Suzanne Fararr said they're working to expand the program to include more students. She said 88 percent of the students who completed the program earned a waiver for their driver's license test. She also made another special shout-out to the emergency brake.

The board continued with recognition of the district's food service, Chartwells, for winning the Regional Safety Leader of he year Award. Maura Keyzer, Assistant Director for Dining Services, was also recognized for recently winning Salaried Associate of the year through Chartwells' corporate company.

The board also named Principal and Assistant Principal of the year - both peer-nominated awards. Keri Weatherly of Breakfast Point was awarded Principal of the Year and Brian Bullock of Bay High School was named Assistant Principal of the Year. Bay High Principal Billy May wrote in his remarks that Bullock's recommendation letter was the easiest one to write.

Diane Wishart with the Association of Bay County Educators presented a report. She mentioned that even though the district was already in week four of school, it was apparent the district does not have enough substitute teachers.

Later in the meeting came the most discussed item on the agenda - school volunteer policy.

People wanting to volunteer at local schools will soon undergo further scrutiny. The board approved a policy requiring stronger background checks of school volunteers in unsupervised settings.

The changes read as such:

"Volunteers in Unsupervised Settings. Volunteers who work with students in an unsupervised setting such as volunteer coaches will be required to provide their fingerprints for a VECHS criminal background check by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The VECHS criminal background check will be paid for by the volunteer candidate. The VECHS criminal background check must be conducted by the Bay District Schools Fingerprint Department."

Board disagreement came as they challenged the definitions of unsupervised settings and who would be responsible for paying the fee, which averages about $40 a pop.

Bay District School's Chief of Security Mike Jones made a strong case for the policy, saying that when they ran current volunteers through the system, on two occasions they found wanted criminals in Parent Teacher Organizations.

"Someone recently said, and I agree, 'This ain't Mayberry no more,'" said Jones.

Board Member Joe Wayne Walker was most adamant about not having volunteers pay for the background checks. He said he thought the volunteer programs would suffer because of this.

Superintendent Bill Husfelt said he was most concerned about safety, and suggested passing the policy as it was written and advertised. He suggested the board could retroactively make changes to clarify the language after it had been passed.

"We only need to mess this up one time for people to say, 'Why are y'all arguing about who's paying for it?'" he said.

When asked by Husfelt, Sandy Harrison, Mosley Principal, told the board from the audience that she estimated Mosley's volunteer count to be 100 at the least.

Board Member Ryan Neves suggested re-writing it to say the volunteer is "responsible" for payment, which could leave it open for someone else to pay for them.

Board Member Ginger Littleton wanted to sort out definitions of unsupervised setting and the exact wording of payment before it was passed, but ultimately ended up making the first motion to pass the policy.

"We may adjust it somewhat but the very idea the people who work with our students in this day and time need to have background checks I think is, it's kind of the way it is this day in time," she said.

The board passed it with all but Walker saying "yeah."

Gradually the change will expand the system already in use by searching national records, instead of just Bay County's. It will also be able to alert district officials immediately if someone does something criminal.

Littleton said she'd like to go back to the policy for some "wordsmithing."

The board agreed Littleton will work on a task force with Mike Jones to further designate unsupervised settings and payment options.

Finally, Husfelt and Littleton both expressed to us their disdain of the district's assessment schedule, which now begins student testing as early as February.