Thumb scans to replace time cards for employees
Something once seen exclusively in sci-fi movies and space age epics is making its way into the St. Charles Parish school system.
Classified employees there will soon toss away their time cards and check into work with their thumbs by using a biometric time clock. A biometric clock scans a thumbprint, then stores binary data representing the ridges and swirls of that thumbprint. After being put into the system, employees will then be recognized by a simple scan. The system, which is already used in schools across the country for a variety of different tasks, will be put in place to help each school keep track of its workers’ overtime.
The School Board voted unanimously in favor of the system.
“Basically, we did an internal audit looking at payroll and the Department of Labor came in and looked at what we had done and said we needed to update our time and attendance system,” Comptroller Jim Melohn said. “They were concerned that employees were not recording their overtime.”
The system, which costs $154,890, should be in place by the end of the school year. Superintendent Dr. Rodney Lafon said he doesn’t expect any problems from employees when it comes to implementing the system.
“You have to remember that it is only for classified employees,” he said. “They have been using time clocks since I was an Allemands principal in the 80’s. This is just a more accurate system.”
Lafon also said that the system is only going to be used for attendance and that there are no current plans to use a biometric scanning system for students.
Staying with the theme of new technology, the School Board also decided to start scanning its current and past personnel records in order to eliminate the burdensome paper load.
The board will enter into a contract with DocuData Solutions to supply the document imaging and management system at a cost of $292,091. A federal grant will pay for the service.
“Right now, we don’t have an accurate system in place,” Lafon said. “Sooner or later, we need to get all that digitized.”
Lafon also said that just because the documents are scanned, doesn’t mean employees should worry about their information becoming public. Those files, which include job performance evaluations, professional observations and job descriptions, are confidential under state law.
Another benefit, besides the decrease in paper, is that the records should become safe and easy to transport.
“After Katrina, it was hard for a lot of school districts to get all their files moved,” Melohn said. “With this system, we just have to back it up to transfer it to another location.”
In other news, the board elected a new president and vice president for the upcoming year. John Smith will be president and Stephen Crovetto will serve as vice president. Both terms began at the close of the meeting.
The board also honored the winner of the district’s annual Christmas Card Contest. Cameron Guidry, a sixth grade student at R.J. Vial Elementary School, will see his card used as the board’s official Christmas card.
Be the first to comment