PARENTS CLAMOR FOR MORE SCHOOL COMMUNICATIONS

Parents say the School Committee needs to ensure a safe school environment
by increasing staff drug and alcohol screening and implementing abuse
awareness programs. The School system also must work on the ongoing
communication issue, according to parents and staff at the School Committee
meeting Monday.

The Safety Task Committee of parents and community members was created
after this year's teacher scandals to improve communication and provide
guidance to the School Committee.

"This committee represents a very diverse group of people, representing
people in industry, people with a vested interest in the community and
community leaders," said Mark Quinn who represented a subcommittee that
gave recommendations for improving the hiring process.

Quinn said the current hiring process is able to secure high-quality
teachers, but that it lacks comprehensive background checks that would
enable the schools to predict behavioral problems such as substance abuse.

"We tend to focus very much in hiring on the technical aspects, the 'what'
they are going to do. We don't spend a lot of time as hiring managers on
the 'how,'" Quinn said.

Quinn recommended outsourcing the background checks and screening portion
of the hiring process to a third party to decrease liability. Hiring
programs would allow the schools to gain a more thorough knowledge of
candidates' backgrounds and would provide information about substance
abuse, criminal records and financial stability.

The schools should also train staff to recognize potential problem
behaviors, Quinn said.

"Everyone is going to become more aware of signs, symptoms and behavioral
changes," said Sue Higgins, a member of the Employee Drug Screening
Subcommittee.

Lee Thurston, nurse leader for the School Department, said staff should be
taught to recognize signs of drug abuse and that all staff should be
required to consent to drug testing if there is evidence of a problem.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stephen Foster said the leadership team of
principals and management staff will train to recognize risky behavior
during a summer conference.

"We need to stress moral responsibility for all teachers," Foster said. He
said the employee assistance program is underutilized and that the teacher
handbook and code of conduct should include policies about proper behavior.

Foster said he is speaking with Frank Shea, a private investigator with the
Department of Education, to determine whether the recent teacher scandals
could have been predicted by more comprehensive criminal records checks.

Nabnasset Principal Susan DuBois, who headed the Public Notification
Subcommittee, said the communications survey should be reissued to gather
more results. A paper copy of the survey was given to all parents after the
School Committee was criticized for its methods of communicating sensitive
issues, especially regarding the allegations against former Blanchard
Middle School teacher Susan Clickner.

DuBois said that parents of kindergarten through second grade students
submitted 221 surveys, but that there were only a handful of responses from
high school parents. She suggested that the survey be reissued in
September, when parents are used to filling out paper work, so that the
School Committee can compile information about how best to communicate
sensitive information.