Our local school system has implemented a new safety measure. All school employees have been given fobs and must now “fob in” when they arrive at school and “fob out” when they leave. The accompanying explanation? In the case of an emergency a record will be available of who is in each building and who is not. (There are over 100 schools in our local district, many with multiple buildings.)
Change is often met with skepticism and this new procedure has raised the eyebrows and hackles of a few of my teaching peeps. I’m all for additional safety at schools, yet this one does puzzle me a bit. I’m catching a whiff of what smells like a way to monitor the comings and going of school employees. However maybe here in our local school district we are a bit behind the times and this sort of procedure is already in place around the country.
Are you asked to fob in and fob out for safety at your school? Or do you have a similar safety procedure in place?
Curious as always!
Diane
At my district, all salaried personnel (teachers, principals, etc.) have to scan in with fingerprints when we arrive at work. We do not have to scan out. All hourly employees, however, must scan in when they arrive, when they go to lunch, when they come back from lunch, and when they leave for the day. It is often a real pain. Oftentimes the fingerprint scanner doesn’t work, so we have to do everything on paper. It was so much easier when we used paper in the first place!
We are asked to sign in and out each day , however many sign out at sign in. I forget many times or I may not have time to walk all the way to the office in the morning. My class is the farthest one away. I don’t actually know what a fob is.
Our school implemented the fobs a few years back. We are a K-8 school. We must use our fobs to gain access to buildings. If the students are outside of the building, they push a button which shows the office who is trying to access the building. The office then buzzes them into the building. It was a real hassle at first. But we are all use to it now. This way our buildings remain on lockdown all the time except for the five minute breaks between classes.
No fob. Our principal does notice who is there to pick their class in the morning. We meet outside for the flag salute each morning.
We use fobs but we don’t have to use them to monitor our attendance. It’s not unusual for someone to hold the door if several of us arrive at the same time. We also have never had to clock in and out unless we are attending a professional development session.
The fobs aren’t about safety, even though that is what Central Admin likes to tell teachers. They are issued and used so that central admin can track who comes in late/leaves early. The days of ducking out 30 minutes early for your doctors appointment are long gone. What I worry most about is using your plan period to run an errand. Every so often teachers need to run out for 20-45 minutes a day, these fobs force teachers to track that. Most common sense principals would ignore this if it isn’t a daily thing. Now they will have to answer for those teachers who need to run out and pick up their sick kid… (Sigh)
Its another way to tell teachers that they are not professionals, and cannot be trusted to do their jobs. I wouldn’t mind punching a time card like I did as a teenager, but they need to just be honest about it.
We don’t use fobs, but we do need to sign in and out at the main office. We also have been told that it’s for safety reasons.