From: Lynn M. Clifton
[mailto:clifton.lynn@brevardschools.org]
Welcome all to another exciting year of volunteering at Brevard Public
Schools. You’re receiving this email because you furnished your email address when you signed up as a volunteer in the VIPS database. If you do not wish to receive email concerning volunteer issues, please follow the instructions below to have your email address removed.
The 2008/09 school year was a tremendous year for our volunteers. Brevard Public Schools logged more than 1.3 million volunteer hours that were donated by almost 25,000 individuals.
What’s new for 2009/2010?
Last year the school board made several changes to the district policy that deals with background checks for volunteers. If you would like to read the entire policy, go to http://www.neola.com/brevardco-fl/ and select policy 8475. We still have two categories of volunteers that are recognized:
Listed volunteers are individuals who have gone through a local background check. They must always be under the supervision of a district employee where they can be both seen and heard.
Registered volunteers are individuals who have gone through a national background check including a fingerprint check done through FDLE/FBI. This is the same background check done for district employees. Registered volunteers are allowed unsupervised access to students.
Changes for this year – There are two big changes for volunteers this year. 1. All volunteers who mentor students are now required to be Registered volunteers. Mentors are individuals who meet one-on-one or in small groups with students over a long time period. 2. All volunteers who drive students at the request of the school district or a district representative are now required to be Registered volunteers.
Other important things to remember: · Registered volunteers must be fingerprinted at the Office of District and School Security, Educational Services Facility in Viera. Fingerprinting is done Monday – Thursday from 8:30 to 4:30. Volunteers are required to pay for their fingerprint background check and must bring a check or money order for $52.25 made payable to Brevard County School Board. Prior to fingerprinting, volunteers need to enter their information into the VIPS Computer database. · All volunteers should sign in AND out using the VIPS computer located in each school’s lobby or on the volunteer hours log provided by the school. It is important to each school that they maintain an accurate record of support provided by the community. If you log in but don’t log out, your volunteer time will be submitted for only 30 minutes regardless of the actual time volunteered. · Volunteer approval is good for five years and all information should be reviewed annually to make sure that we have your current emergency contact information. · Volunteer approval can take four weeks or longer depending on the number of applications needing processing. If your approval is about to expire, please make sure that you come in and update your information so that you can continue to volunteer.
If you would like to learn more about a non-partisan grass roots organization dedicated to ensuring public education remains a priority, please visit www.fundeducationnow.org. This informative website helps provide details about becoming active in the quest to ensure public education receives adequate funding be it through contacting your elected officials, wearing the message on a t-shirt, staying involved by reading regularly updated alerts or inviting a Fund Education Now education advocate to your organization’s next meeting.
If you wish to unsubscribe from volunteer email communications, please go to http://districtcommunications.brevardschools.org/VOLsubscribeun.htm |