New Law Lets Schools Access Employee Files and History Can Be Overlooked
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FRIDAY July 8, 2011 TIMES-NEWS 75 CENTS Sports 1 Youngsters to converge on park, Twenty-four locals enhance creative talents, gear up for football games Entertainment 1 On the Kids get crafty gridiron Magicvalley.com New law lets schools access employee files and history can be overlooked. The district reviewed those hir- Personnel records augment district background checks Dobbs said the background checks ing practices last year after two in- are thorough, but knowing how cidents of teachers accused of sex By Amy Huddleston tricts to share employee perform- court-records database, a step that people have interacted in their past crimes. One of them was Michael Times-News writer ance files with potential new em- districts have to take themselves. jobs is helpful in deciding whether Scott Brinkerhoff, hired in 2006 as ployers. Now evaluations, any let- Twin Falls School District Su- to hire them. the Burley Junior High School Eng- In the past, when school em- ters of reprimand and more infor- perintendent Wiley Dobbs said the “We would just receive the dates lish and drama teacher and sen- ployees wanted to move to a new mation on employee performance personnel files will be helpful when from which they were employed,” tenced last month to a one-year re- district in Idaho, they would go will be available to new employers. interviewing candidates. Dobbs said. “Districts have been hab program after pleading guilty through standard hiring practices: Districts aren’t allowed to hire “All districts can think of a time skittish about saying too much be- to felony sex abuse of a minor under background checks, interviews and anyone from other Idaho districts or two where they hired someone cause of potential lawsuits.” 16. reference calls would be conduct- without their consent to look and didn’t have the full informa- Cassia County schools chief Smyer said that, in Brinkerhoff’s ed. through their files. tion,” Dobbs said. “This law is in- Gaylen Smyer said his district rou- case, the background checks didn’t But personnel files from former It’s one more tool for school dis- tended to give districts the full story tinely completes comprehensive give the district reason not to hire school districts were not allowed to tricts seeking to vet the people who about the person they are looking at background checks on its employ- him. The district’s checks did miss be reviewed. teach Idaho’s children. Last year, hiring.” ees and said the new law won’t a string of misdemeanor petit theft That changed on July 1 with a some districts began running po- Even with background checks, make a large difference in its hiring new law that requires school dis- tential hires through Idaho’s free employees’ past work performance practices. See LAW, Main 2 S KEETER DEFEATER Simpson budget proposal trims EPA By Ben Botkin Times-News writer Every government budget pro- posal has its winners and losers. In this one,the biggest loser would be the U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency, with a potential cut of $1.5 billion. Among the winners would be the U.S. Forest Ser- vice’s wildland fire management fund, which would get $37 million more. Both are in the budget proposal for Simpson the EPA, U.S. Interior Department and other natural-re- sources agencies for the coming fis- cal year. The House Interior and the Environment Appropriations Sub- committee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, approved ASHLEY SMITH/Times-News the bill on Thursday,sending it to the Kirk Tubbs, right, and Aaron Ursenbach, both with the Twin Falls County Pest Abatement District, collect bluegill Thursday morning at Dierkes Lake near Twin Falls. full House Appropriations Commit- They collected the fish to release in ponds around the county to combat mosquito swarms. See story on Main 3. tee. The bill has a double-barreled goal of trimming back on federal govern- ALSO MAKING NEWS ment spending while also making a slew of regulatory changes that sup- T.F.Co. assessment appeals rise porters contend are needed for eco- Officials rethink nomic growth. Those run the gamut from a one-year prohibition on reg- By Nick Coltrain assessors dropped their values improving the property,adjusted ulating greenhouse gases from fac- storage business Times-News writer after closer inspection, but that for depreciation and inflation. tories to reducing the backlog of ap- they still didn’t agree with the fi- In a perfect world, Bowden BOISE (AP) — Gov. C.L. plications to graze on federal lands. Twin Falls County’s number nal assessments. said, all three come out to the “Butch” Otter and Superin- “This committee is taking mean- of property assessment appeals State law assumes the assessor same number. But in our imper- tendent of Public Instruction ingful steps to help put our country’s more than doubled this year to be accurate,Kramer said. fect world, the assessor’s office Tom Luna say they erred last fiscal house in order,”Simpson said. compared to last year — to about Records of direct sales and gives extra weight to the evalua- year when they voted to spend Overall, the subcommittee’s $27.5 113 people and companies — for-a-fee appraisals have been tion method deemed most accu- $2.7 million to buy a storage billion bill is 12 percent less than County Commissioner Terry major considerations for Kramer rate. business whose revenue bene- what President Barack Obama Kramer said. when he votes on whether to up- In this week’s appeals, several fits Idaho public schools and sought. County residents have been hold the original assessment, he commercial property owners or other state institutions. The EPA faces a potential 31 per- making their cases to the com- said. their representatives disputed As Idaho Land Board mem- cent cut when factoring in a budget missioners all week, with the last Twin Falls County Assessor their assessments, arguing that bers, they voted in a unani- measure Congress passed in April. of them scheduled for Monday. Gerry Bowden said there are an income-based evaluation mous decision to use proceeds “Some naysayers will no doubt Kramer thinks part of the rea- three main ways to assess com- would have been more accurate. from the previous sale of try to portray Republicans as not son for the jump was that assess- mercial properties: by the ability Bowden doesn’t take much issue parcels from Idaho's endow- supporting clean water, clean air, ments were based on values from of the property to generate in- with that because of the fluctua- ment land portfolio to add Af- and a clean environment, but such almost a year prior, from Oct. 1, come, by what the property tions in occupied rental units. fordable Self-Storage in Boise 2009,to Sept.30,2010. would go for on the free market, to its investments. See Main 5 APPEALS See SIMPSON, Main 2 Several people testified that or by the costs of building and See , Main 2 Bridge ..............Classifieds 7 Crossword ......Classifieds 8 Obituaries ..........Business 3 Partly to Comics ..........Classifieds 12 Dear Abby........Classifieds 8 Opinion ......................Main 4 82 / 54 mostly sunny Commodities ......Business 2 Jumble ..........Classifieds 10 Sudoku............Classifieds 11 Business 4 Main 2 Friday, July 8, 2011 MORNING MIX TN Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho IF YOU DO ONE THING TODAY A Jackpot kids long odyssey to death row Pack up the kids and head to Storytime Pottery, 10 a.m. at Hands here are 3,260 in- block to finish the job. Boys in Elko; the Caliente, On, 147 Shoshone St. N. in Twin Falls. For children ages 2-6 and mates awaiting exe- Arrested 10 days later in Nev.,Youth Center,and their parents, it includes the story “Ice Cream Larry,”a snack and cution in the United YOU DON’T an Evanston, Ill., homeless from 1992-94 at the Idaho painting project. Cost is $12. Preregister: 736-4475. T States,and one of them is SAY shelter,Poyson was eventu- Department of Juvenile from the Magic Valley. ally convicted in Arizona of Corrections Center in St. He’s Robert Allen Poyson, Steve Crump three counts of first-degree Anthony.He was released 34,sentenced to death in murder,one count of con- when he turned 18. Arizona in 1998 after being Anderson slit the boys spiracy to commit murder “All my life I used excuses Golf Course Road convicted of murdering throat with a bread knife and one count of armed for why I did what I did and three people in August 1996. and Poyson bashed the vic- robbery.Anderson and Lane blamed a lot of people but He was born in Twin Falls tims head against the floor were also convicted of the after youve been locked and grew up in Jackpot. and pounded him with a murders, and Anderson is down like I am and have to signal delayed According to court rock. That didnt kill De- also on Arizonas death row. face the possibilities of dy- records,Poyson was a 19- lahunt, so Poyson picked up In the landmark 2002 ing soon, you begin to think Times-News and ITD cautioned the de- year-old drifter who be- the bread knife and drove it case Ring vs. Arizona, the and evaluate your life and lay could run as long as one friended a 15-year-old boy through the teenagers ear U.S. Supreme Court invali- you realize that it’s no ones A project to install a new month. in Kingman, Ariz. The boys and into his nose.