CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Parent Volunteers Sent Scrambling For TB Tests

Parents stopping by Harbor View Elementary School this week, turning in registration forms before the Sept. 7 start of classes, received memos reminding them of district policies regarding parent volunteers.

“We have been out of compliance,” the memo said, adding a frowning emoticon.

This year, school officials said, the rules will be strictly enforced, including the requirement that volunteers show proof that they passed a tuberculosis test if they plan to work in the classroom or as field trip chaperones.

Officials with the Newport-Mesa Unified School District are not making a special effort this year, said spokeswoman Laura Boss, but rather every year try to encourage schools to make sure their volunteers are following the rules outlined in a September 2008 letter.

That letter states, in part, “The Tuberculosis skin testing for all school classroom volunteers. All volunteers in schools shall be required to have on file with the school, a certificate showing that within the last four years such person has been examined and has been found to be free of communicable tuberculosis.”

A volunteer is anyone who works in a classroom once a month or more. Test results will be kept in confidential files in school offices, the letter states.

The TB skin test involves a jab in the forearm that medical staff will re-check for symptoms after 48 to 72 hours — which means if parents plan to volunteer next week on school campuses, they need to get to a doctor’s office or clinic soon.

Harbor View Principal Charlene Metoyer said she’s been working with teachers and staff to ensure that parents without proper badges are sent to the office this school year, and if they have not complied with the volunteer requirements, they will not be permitted to stay.

“We want to keep our kids safe,” she said.

Some volunteers who work with children unsupervised, or who will go on overnight field trips, will be more intensely screened, including having a fingerprint check and screening by the Department of Justice. To read the district’s volunteer screening policies, click here. You can also find a link there to a volunteer registration form, which needs to be returned to the school office at each school where you plan to volunteer.