(Riverton, WY) – Riverton schools superintendent Jodi Ibach offered an overview of district hiring policies this week after hearing concerns from the public stemming from the recent arrest of former school employee Hunter DeVries for sexual abuse of a minor.
Riverton School Board Trustee Carl Manning requested the overview, explaining that, since the arrest was reported, he’s received several comments and questions from constituents wondering “how we check out employees.”
“A couple weeks ago we had some bad press about people that you trust,” Manning said during this week’s school board meeting. “I was just going to ask Jodi to sort of go over how we vet people for positions in the district, and volunteers.”
DeVries’ social media profile says he previously worked as a substitute teacher and paraprofessional at Willow Creek Elementary School, and Ibach said he also volunteered for the district.
Policies
During her overview, Ibach referred to Board Policies 5115 and 5315, which outline staff hiring processes for certified staff and classified staff, respectively.
Both policies state that, “prior to making a final decision as to the hiring of any employee, the employee must consent to and provide the necessary documentation … to allow for a criminal background check.”
“Every single one of our employees goes through a criminal background check,” Ibach said.
She said the district conducts “reference checks” as part of its hiring process, too – contacting references to ask them if they “know of any reason this candidate should not be hired to work with children.”
“That is a very helpful question,” Ibach said. “It’s simply ‘yes’ or ‘no’ with that person – you don’t ask them to expound – but if somebody answers ‘yes’ to that, then the candidate isn’t interviewed.”
‘Red flag’
For certified employees, the board policies note that the background check requirement “may be met by the Professional Teaching Standards Board conducting a criminal background check of the applicant prior to being employed with the School District.”
In addition, Board Policy 5315 says classified staff “may be initially employed under a probationary period” which “allows for the employee to begin work prior to the receipt by the District of the aforementioned physical examination and/or background check.”
Ibach explained that, in cases when “we need to put the person in the position,” the district conducts a “local background check” through the Riverton Police Department.
“(That) tells us whether it’s a red flag or not,” she said. “We don’t hire people that have a red flag.”
The process isn’t “foolproof,” she noted, explaining that, even with background checks and reference checks in place, the district “won’t be made aware of” any criminal activity an employee might participate in after being hired.
“That’s where things are missed,” she said. “(But we) will continue to work with staff on identifying certain behaviors that would lead us to believe that something is happening that shouldn’t be.”
She also pointed to Board Policy 5117, which authorizes the superintendent to request a criminal background check “in any situation when he/she deems it appropriate for the School District to have the specific information prior to making a hiring decision or when there has been no recent criminal background check of the applicant.”
Volunteers
For volunteers, Ibach said the district screening process features three “tiers” that offer varying levels of protection based on the amount of time the volunteer spends with students.
The first tier is for volunteers who only plan to visit local schools “a couple times,” she said – for speaking engagements, for example.
Those volunteers simply need to check in at the school, Ibach said, calling the process “pretty simple,” with “not a lot (that) needs to be done.”
In the second tier, she said volunteers are asked to fill out a confidentiality agreement “because they’re going to be in the classroom more often” – though they won’t be “left unsupervised with the students.”
Volunteers in the third tier do spend time alone with students, she said, and they are required to submit to the same level of screening as new employees.
“Following those processes, we feel like we’ve done what we can to ensure that our students are safe,” Ibach concluded.
For more information call Fremont County School District 25 at (307) 856-9407.