The Rowan-Salisbury school system has begun more rigorous background checks on teachers it hires — but not because of recent sexual charges against three employees.
When Dr. Wiley Doby took over as superintendent in January, he immediately opted to hire Charlotte-based Chapman Corp. to perform criminal record checks on prospective employees. The company provides a quicker turnaround and more thorough information about prospective employees than in the past, he said.
“That seems the most cost-effective way to do these checks,” Doby said. “We take this very seriously.”
A policy the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education approved Feb. 12 reads: “As a condition of employment, a reasonable effort will be made to ascertain whether the final candidate for a school personnel position has any criminal history in, but not limited to, the county of residence, employment or schooling.”
The updated policy now requires current teachers and other employees to notify personnel staff when they are convicted of any crime other than a traffic citation.
In the past, applicants themselves had to provide schools with criminal records from each county in which they lived in the past five years — including places in other states, said Barbara Murdock, a personnel specialist for Rowan-Salisbury Schools.
Chapman Corp. checks criminal records of N.C. applicants in places they’ve lived since 1984. For out-of-state applicants, the company can check records at least as far back as seven years. “We find a lot of things that slip through the cracks,”said Chapman President Christopher Chapman.
School board Chairman Clyde Miller says that the policy has changed little, but the school system is researching criminal records of possible employees more vigorously.
School system spokeswoman Kathy Walters said that more exhaustive records checks can become costly for a school system that employs approximately 2,700 people.
“The school system would love to run a national criminal background check on everyone, but it’s just cost prohibitive,” Walters said.
“I think it’s a whole lot better than we had,” added Murdock.
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