School Districts

Our local public library has started a collection of donated yearbooks from the high school. They requested to receive or purchase new yearbooks as they were published. As the yearbook contains underage students, information about their sports and clubs, we felt that this was protected personal information and should not be publicly accessible.

I appreciate the care behind this question: when yearbook information is being assembled, not many people are thinking about all the places the publication could potentially go.

We have a school district public library board considering requiring background checks for new employees. They are concerned that they may be legally required to background check all current employees. Would there be any legal reason they would need to do so?

[NOTE: for background to this short answer, please see the much longer "Ask the Lawyer" Background checks and fingerprinting for new employees, that addresses the tightrope walk/legal minefields of employee background checks.]

What law, regulation, or regulatory authority governs the budget transfer policy at a school district public library?  Is there any case law or authority on that?

Quite a few laws, regulations, and regulatory authorities will impact the budget transfer policy of a school district public library.  Here are the biggies:

For public libraries seeking school ballot funding, there's some gray area around whether a petition with signatures of eligible school district voters needs to be submitted to the school. Is the petition actually needed and if so, what laws and policies define this process?

When I started writing “Ask the Lawyer” in 2016, my daughter was two years old.

I would like to be able to answer this question like a two-year-old Molly and say simply (and loudly): “NO!” (you don't need a petition).

What, if any, are the ramifications if a school district public library board of trustee member refuses to sign the code of ethics and/or the conflict of interest/whistleblower policy?

I am sure there is a very interesting set of facts, personal convictions, and conversations behind the stark facts presented in this question (there always is).  But we’ll address just the stark facts.