Quote :

"RALEIGH (WTVD) -- This school year, every person who wants to volunteer in a Wake County school has to undergo a criminal records check. In years past, the check only applied to certain volunteers depending on the level of involvement they had with students. So far this school year, Wake has checked and approved 28,983 volunteers. As of Tuesday, there are more than 6,400 people whose applications are pending. The system Wake uses provides nightly updates on each volunteer that has been processed. "The only way we had to gauge whether some volunteers were safe to be around students or not is if they’re honest with us," said Stephen Gainey, Assistant Superintendent for Human Relations. "Once we did a check on some of them, you would not believe what we found." The additional measures have cost Wake more than $140,000 to date. That’s twice the amount Wake spent last year conducting checks. "The additional safety is worth the price," Gainey said. He also explained that now all volunteers who are cleared have the same level of clearance to work with students which makes it easier on principals who no longer have to remember to what extent a certain volunteer could work with students. Wake was flooded with volunteer applications from July 1 - October 5 according to Gainey. He said another application window will open in December and in late March. In the meantime, anyone who wants to volunteer can apply directly at their school’s principal’s office. Once the principal gives the okay their application is forwarded on for a criminal records check."

I am pretty sure most parents would pay a $4-5 fee for a volunteer application if they want to work at the school as a volunteer. (hell, charge them $8 and cover the cost of a photo ID badge so its easy to see who is approved)

Likely many of the people who filled out "volunteer applications" did it just in case and will not even work at the school.

It is nice to see the new school board majority managing things well.

10/20/2010 12:42:44 AM

but see think of the children

10/20/2010 12:48:34 AM

Quote :

"I am pretty sure most parents would pay a $4-5 fee "

doubt it.

10/20/2010 2:15:05 AM

Ok, I will rephrase.

A $4-5 fee, in addition to background checks, would be a great way to weed out the losers.

10/20/2010 7:56:00 AM

Yeh, why in the hell are all the taxpayers paying for this? If you want to volunteer you pay the $5 application fee.

10/20/2010 8:39:43 AM

charge each potential volunteer the cost of the background check. if they pass, pay them back.

10/20/2010 9:42:58 AM

What if they apply, pass, and never work at the school?

10/20/2010 9:55:13 AM

oh well. They're volunteers. Similar things happen with high turnover positions in the private sector all the time.

10/20/2010 9:59:24 AM

Quote :

"$140,000"

Big deal. Lay off an administrator to cover it. They've got tons of those.

10/20/2010 10:10:48 AM

Am I the only person who isn't shocked at the price tag? I mean, isn't it worth it? I'm all for having people pay the $5 in the future, but really, is $140k that outrageous of a price for almost 30,000 free workers? Seems like a good deal to me.

10/20/2010 11:27:23 AM

^Beat me to it.

You're only looking at the cost of the background checks and not looking at the money saved by having people do work for free. $140,000. What's that, like 4 workers salary (+ benefits). I'm sure they wouldn't get the same productivity out of those 4 workers than they do out of all the volunteers.

[Edited on October 20, 2010 at 12:04 PM. Reason : -]

10/20/2010 12:03:29 PM