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Testimony of Ms. Carol Lark Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness Hearing On Clark County School District May 24, 2004 It is indeed an honor to address this important legislative body. My name is Carol Lark and I am Principal of an elementary school in N. Las Vegas, Nevada. I have 945 students and we are 91% free and reduced lunch and 86% Hispanic. We are a full Title 1 School and we truly appreciate the funds provided to Title 1 schools. I am here today to testify on behalf of the "Schools Safely Acquiring Faculty Excellence Act of 2003". Only recently did I learn that only 16 states have ratified the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact. In all honesty, I was shocked. I have been an administrator in Nevada for the past 14 years and I have always assumed that when prospective teachers were fingerprinted, we could rest assured that at the very least, they did not come to us with a felony on their records. Unfortunately, interviews and reference checks will often not reveal such information. Professionals are becoming more and more reluctant to share negative information about employees out of fear of being sued. Fingerprinting is the one objective, factual bit of information that we should have access to when selecting teachers. A few years ago I spent seven days in an arbitration attempting to remove a teacher based on performance alone. When the arbitrator asked me if I had any last comments, I told him that if he were to reverse my decision, and keep that teacher in the classroom, then he should have to put his own child, or his grandchild in that classroom. The same principle applies here. The only plausible reason that I can imagine for not cooperating, must be financial. I am sure that entering the data would require a certain amount of manpower. Nevertheless, I doubt that you could find a taxpayer alive that would not support this legislation. I would much prefer to dodge potholes in the road, than allow sexual predators in my child’s classroom. Six years ago, when I moved to my at-risk school, I hired 23 teachers from all over the country and I have hired many more since then. I knew that each of them had to be fingerprinted, and I felt secure in believing that they had no criminal record. To find out now, that I was wrong, is very disturbing. Clark County is presently the sixth largest district in the nation and we probably have teachers from every state in the union. We are growing so fast that we are constantly prioritizing our priorities, but never have we questioned the importance of cooperating with the FBI in an area as serious as our children’s safety. I urge you to pass this legislation as quickly as possible. Our children’s safety is at stake. If we are to leave No Child Left Behind, let us address their safety and as well as their academic achievement. I thank you for this opportunity to testify. |