Школа округа Квинси перевела проверку отпечатков пальцев сотрудников на внутренний контроль

Quincy Public Schools shifts fingerprint checks to in-house Published 8:26 pm Wednesday, August 26, 2026 QUINCY — Quincy Public Schools (QPS) plans to expand its security screenings while saving money with a shift in its fingerprinting and background checks. The School Board on Wednesday night approved a contract with Bushue Human Resources Inc. to cover the screening for staff members, visitors and contractors interacting with students. The contract calls for a $6,500 annual support and equipment fee to provide the fingerprint equipment, laptop, camera and additional items to QPS, which will do the screening, and $27 per fingerprint submission to be reviewed by Bushue based on an expected annual volume of 250 to 500 fingerprints. QPS had been accessing fingerprint checks by appointment through the Regional Office of Education (ROE) at a cost of $50 per submission. The ROE will remain a backup service for QPS. QPS Chief of Business Operations Ryan Whicker said the move to Bushue will save money and give the district flexibility by bringing the service in-house. “This will bring in some efficiency and much needed customer service for new staff members to just take care of them here,” Whicker said. “We can expand the folks we scan to make sure everybody’s safe to be around students.” Plans call for housing the equipment in the security department with existing staff managing the screening. “We’ll cross train others, so when they’re busy, someone else can step in,” Whicker said. “Down the road we could consider being a location where other school districts could utilize our services. But we’re going to start ourselves first to make sure we can take care of our own before we would open that up to anybody else,” Whicker said. Also Wednesday, board members set a public hearing for Sept. 30 on the tentative 2026-27 district budget. The $106 million balanced spending plan incorporates a 3% increase in salaries and an estimated 5% increase in benefits while expecting to finish with a surplus in the education, operations and maintenance and transportation budgets. The district’s spending plan benefited from a 7% increase locally in the equalized assessed value and an estimated $1.6 million more than the previous year in the corporate personal property replacement tax. “It’s something I wasn’t quite expecting given the economy of Illinois right now,” Whicker said. In other action, board members: -Heard that the 2026-27 year is off to a good start. “I’m happy to report we had a successful first week of school,” Superintendent Larry Gray said. Open houses continue with events Thursday night at Lincoln-Douglas Elementary and Quincy Junior High School, Sept. 2 at Quincy High School, Sept. 8 at the Academy, Sept. 15 at the Early Childhood and Family Center and Sept. 24 at Denman Elementary. -Approved the 2026-27 Special Education Association, Quincy Area Vocational Technical Center and West Central Region budgets. -Tabled the latest updates from the Policy Reference Education Subscription Service (PRESS), with a vote planned in September. The updates to 11 policies reflect changes due to ongoing five-year reviews or changes in case law. PRESS did recommend changing the time allowed for public participation at School Board meetings from five minutes per speaker to three minutes, but the QPS Policy Committee favored staying with the five minutes now allowed in the district. -Approved a letter of intent clearing the way for the district to use the 5 Essentials survey provided through Panorama, instead of the vendor selected by the Illinois State Board of Education. The district has worked with Panorama in recent years on the required survey, and “the time it takes to take it as a staff, a student, a parent is shorter,” QPS Director of Teaching and Learning Kim Dinkheller said. “Before most people were doing it to do it, but it was not giving us insight. In the last two to three years, schools say it’s helpful, too, for school improvement planning.” -Agreed to a 36-month lease for a new Takeuchi skid steer from Luby Equipment at a cost of $1,886.15 per month.