School district’s personnel phone lines take their toll

By Emily Richmond (contact)

Monday, July 29, 2002 | 9:19 a.m.

Calls to the Clark County School District's personnel office have gone from "free" to "fee," at least for potential employers, creditors and other financial institutions.

In a nod to its flourishing size, the School District has switched to an automated, toll call system for employment verifications, eliminating the live person at the other end of the line, officials said.

The phone verification system went into effect June 1, said Jeffrey Hafen, executive director of the district's support staff personnel department. All of the fees associated with installing the software and maintaining the service have been waived by Advanced HR Solutions, Hafen said.

In order to use the service, employees must sign up so that their information can be accessed by callers. Advanced HR Solutions charges about $10 to retrieve data for the requestor, such as a mortgage company or car dealership. When a government agency requests the information, it costs the district $3.

"We just couldn't continue to provide a free service to 25,000 employees," Hafen said. "We're facing a budget crunch, and our department has had to cut back just like everyone else."

About 95 percent of the requests for verification come from financial institutions, Hafen said.

Before the switch, the district was swamped with calls on a daily basis from people seeking employment and payroll verifications, said George Ann Rice, associate superintendent of human resources.

"We have 1,600 new teachers each year, and each one probably needs to open an account at Sears, or get a home loan or have their credit checked by a landlord," Rice said. "That meant about 5,000 calls for our office staff to handle. It was reaching an impossible level."

Since the system went into effect, only one district worker has come forward to complain -- Angela Tortora, a substitute teacher since 1993. Tortora said her attempts to find a summer job have been thwarted by the School District's use of the toll number for employee verification.

Tortora tried to sign up with The Eastridge Group Staffing Services office in Henderson for part-time work, but her application was turned down because her employment status with the School District could not be verified without using the toll number. Marta Aguirre, a counselor at Eastridge who tried to place Tortora, said in most cases her company doesn't allow staff to call toll numbers to verify employment status.

"There are plenty of other people looking for jobs that employers don't have to pay to verify," Tortora said. "When they find out it costs money to check you out, they just move on to the next person on the list."