Teachers, school district staff required to wear badges

If you have gone into a Matanuska-Susitna Borough school recently, you may have noticed people wearing unfamiliar badges.

This is due to a new policy in which every employee of the school district must now wear an identification badge. These official badges have a photo of the employee, their name, position and "Mat-Su School District" on them. The school they work at is highlighted in yellow.

The badges are provided to all employees, including bus drivers, aides, janitors, teachers, administrative staff and even school board members. The goal of this new policy is to create a safe environment for students.

The program began with giving identification badges to itinerant school workers, such as speech therapists who traveled from school to school, said JulieAnn Russell of Burchell High School.

"The Mat-Su School District has nearly 1,500 employees and 668 substitute teachers. There are 14,000 students and 32 schools in a 25,000-square-mile area of the borough, ranging from Glacier View to Trapper Creek," said Kim Floyd, school district public information specialist.

That is a lot of people to keep track of. She said the badges are designed to have two benefits -- to help keep the children safe and make employees feel like part of a larger community.

"Parents like it," agrees Russell.

If a teacher sees someone without a badge walking around the school, the visitor is asked to sign in at the office. There they will receive a temporary sticker to wear. The sticker is infused with colors that fade in eight hours, so they cannot be reused. Visitors are asked to sign out when they leave school grounds.

While strapping identification around your neck every day may have been a little hard to get used to, it becomes just a matter of habit, according to employees.

"After a while, you feel a little off without it," Floyd said.

Russell also said she likes the badges.

"I have kids in three different schools," she said.

To set up the new system the school district required a camera, some software, and a printer, all of which was included in the Department of Transportation budget for bus drivers.

It is expected that employees will keep their badges for the duration of their time with the district. If one is lost, photos are kept on file on a computer, so a replacement can be made. Employees must pay $25 to get a lost badge replaced.

To make sure badges will not be used inappropriately, they are handed in when an employee leaves the district.

"They are considered borough property, just like keys," explained Floyd.

School district officials hope to have badges for all employees by the end of this school year.