In a first-grade classroom this week, Marie Merkins helped 7-year-old Jordan McIntosh with his reading lesson.
“Sound it out. T-tells,” said Merkins, a Foster Grandparent volunteer.
More than 100 volunteers like Merkins help out in the Ada-Borup School District’s elementary schools throughout the year. Superintendent Ollen Church said requiring background checks on the volunteers would kill the district’s Parent Volunteer Program.
Yet bit by bit, more Minnesota school districts are conducting background checks on their volunteers in the interest of student safety.
