Oasis to require fingerprinting for some school volunteers, vendors
New state law mandate for those who may be alone with students
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Oasis Charter Schools volunteers will undergo more stringent vetting, including fingerprinting.
The new clearance required for volunteers is a level two background screening, which requires fingerprints for certain school functions.
Superintendent Jacquelin Collins said Sen. Bill 676 requires volunteers who will be alone with students at any time now undergo the screening. Those affected include volunteers who chaperone on overnight field trips, volunteer athletic coaches that are not paid, and vendors.
"We have also added chaperone on a field trip outside of Lee County," Collins said.
As far as vendors that must have level two clearance are those that come during the day and are not supervised. Collins gave the example of someone working on a fence during school hours when kids are on campus and present.
The initial fingerprinting will be at the volunteers' own expense, which runs about $84 for the charter system.
"When you think about all the volunteers that we have, we cannot take on that expense to pay $84 for everyone," Collins said. "These are just for changes when there could be a volunteer potentially alone with a student away from the eyes of an employee - that is a level two."
She said, unfortunately, that is the day and age in which we live.
"We don't want to take any chances and it's statute right now," Collins said.
The School District of Lee County will begin this practice on Jan. 1. A level two clearance is required - fingerprinting - to conduct a state and national background clearance. Those level two volunteers would be chaperoning field trips, mentoring, transporting students in a vehicle without a school district employee present and volunteer athletic coaches.
Collins said once the fingerprinting is done it is good for five years. She said when a recheck is done, the charter system will pay for the cost because the fingerprints are already in the database.
"It takes at least a good month," Collins said of the fingerprinting process. "We already sent the packet out. Parents know what to do, where to go, who to contact."
There were many questions from the municipal board, as the cost might deter volunteers, and the process might limit how many volunteers will be available for the overnight trips.
"Let us roll it out and see how it goes," Collins said. "For athletic coaches, the teams are going to try to cover the cost of the athletic coaches."
The Tuesday night meeting also touched upon safety within the Oasis Charter System. Collins said on Sept. 1, they must submit their safety assessment tool - 135 pages that identifies the review of potential threats, vulnerabilities and the placement of safety controls.
"A lot of the issues we always state on the form no longer exist," Collins said, such as fencing, lighting and other security measures.
Part of the documents is identifying and prioritizing hardening of the city system's four schools. Some that were added in the report include backup power, permitter surveillance, transportation security measures, security personnel, lighting, cameras, monitoring of the grounds, camera systems and written documentation of a reunification plan.
Collins said they receive TAPS grant funding every year, which helps in the implementation of hardening techniques.
If they do receive the grant funding this year, they would like to spend the money on cement pilings for the back of the Oasis South Elementary School campus to protect students as they exit the car and walk on the sidewalk. The pilings will prevent cars from being able to pull on the sidewalk where students walk.
In addition, Collins said they would like to add ballistic glass film to the front office windows and doors. In addition, ballistic glass film will be added to the high school front glass doors and lobby for the wall-to-wall glass doors and windows.
They are in the process of finishing locking mechanisms on doors at Oasis North Elementary School, a safety measure they took on with the TAPS grant funding for 2024.
"We are in a very good place as far as safety and security and hardening goes," Collins said.