Mamaroneck Schools Double-Check Prospective
Employees
by Judy Silberstein
 (
October 22, 2002
) No matter how distinguished your educational resume,
if you want to work for the Mamaroneck School District,
you have to pass two additional hurdles. First, you
must clear the criminal history background check, and
then your fingerprints must clear as well. Recently,
schools in Harrison and Port Chester have run afoul
of background check regulations leading to the temporary
or permanent removal of staff and the resignation of
the Harrison superintendent.
In Mamaroneck, new employees are subject to fingerprint
requirements mandated by New York State since July 1,
2001. According to Assistant Superintendent for Administration
and Personnel Rosemarie Coletti, the district has actually
been taking fingerprints of new employees in-house and
shipping them to the State Education Department for
processing. In addition, the district contracts with
a security firm to run additional background checks.
While the process can be cumbersome, taking two days
for the criminal history check and over six weeks for
the fingerprint check, Mamaroneck begins hiring new
teachers so early in the year that there is rarely a
problem waiting for the checks. Further, the state typically
issues a conditional clearance within a month that allows
an employee to begin working on a provisional basis.
The $74 cost of fingerprinting is born by the prospective
employee and does not impact the school’s budget.
So, how effective is the new process at weeding out
unsuitable employees? To date, Coletti has uncovered
few skeletons in the closets of prospective hires. “There
have been occasions,” she noted, “where
individuals have refused to be fingerprinted and, therefore,
are not offered employment.”
“Even with these procedures in place, said Superintendent
Sherry King at the October School Board meeting, “the
best way to ensure safety is to be vigilant and get
to know the people who work in our schools.”
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