HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 17

46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2004

INTRODUCED BY

Teresa A. Zanetti

FOR THE LEGISLATIVE EDUCATION STUDY COMMITTEE

A JOINT MEMORIAL

REQUESTING THE PUBLIC EDUCATION DEPARTMENT TO PROVIDE A MODEL SAFETY POLICY GOVERNING AFTER-HOURS WORK AT SCHOOL SITES.

     WHEREAS, House Joint Memorial 66 of the forty-sixth legislature, first session, requested the former state board of education and the former state department of public education to review school safety plans to assess the ability of those plans to ensure the safety of school employees and students during school hours and nonschool hours; and

     WHEREAS, Senate Joint Memorial 66 also requested the legislative education study committee to study the issues surrounding the safety of all school employees and students and ways in which safety could be increased; and

     WHEREAS, the school safety task force, which was formed to study these issues, found that school safety plans focus almost exclusively on student safety, with little, if any, attention to the safety of employees, contractors and volunteers; and

     WHEREAS, the task force's survey of local superintendents found that several school districts have no policy governing work by employees, contractors or volunteers at the school site during nonschool hours; and

     WHEREAS, this same survey revealed that several local superintendents would welcome guidance from the state regarding such policies;

     NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the public education department be requested to develop a model policy governing work by employees, contractors and volunteers at school sites during nonschool hours, disseminate the model policy to the school districts and require school districts to adopt the model policy or other safety policy; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the public education department report to the legislative education study committee by October 2004 on the status of the adoption and implementation of school district policies governing work at school sites during nonschool hours; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be transmitted to the secretary of public education and to the legislative education study committee for appropriate distribution.