In accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the procedures created by the Mars Area School District, all parents who would like to volunteer with the Mars Area Band must obtain and submit the clearances needed to be classified as an INDEPENDENT VOLUNTEER.

The important information is stated at the top of the Independent Volunteer form:

“First time Volunteers must submit Clearances from the current year.  Your Clearances are kept on file and can be used for 5 years from date of Issuance with continuous volunteer service.  If there is a gap in your volunteer service, you must get Clearances redone for the current year.  Allow a week’s notice before the next available School Board meeting”.

The clarification was that the “continuous volunteer service” must be in the Mars Area School District.

Therefore, unless you have current valid clearances AND had Independent Volunteer status in the Mars Area School district last year, you will need to acquire new clearances.

If you are an employee in the Mars Area School District, you must still fill out the Volunteer Application and check the box “Clearances on File“, and then be approved by the board.

If you are a teacher at another district, you must submit new clearances when you are applying for the first time as an Independent Volunteer at Mars.

If you are interested in being an independent volunteer, please get your information to the administration office by mid to end of August so you can be approved for September.

Once you have your clearances, they are good for five years, BUT you must still complete a Volunteer Application (check the box “clearances on file”) and have your driver’s license scanned every year (the best time for this is after July 1st).

If you have applied and are curious of your status, please check the Board-Approved Independent Volunteers page on the Mars Area School District website. (https://www.marsk12.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=795535&type=d&pREC_ID=1186741)

The process is on the website, but this is what I was sent by the administration:

Here is the procedure for becoming an Independent Volunteer:

  1. Fill in pages 1&2 of application (MASD Independent Volunteer Application)
  2. Obtain 3 clearances. If you have never been a board approved volunteer, or skipped a year, you need to obtain them for the current year:

PA Child Abuse History Check (Act 151) — www.compass.state.pa.us/cwis
PA Criminal History Check (Act 34) — https://epatch.pa.gov/home
FBI Federal Criminal History Check (Act 114) — https://uenroll.identogo.co

(service code 1KG6ZJ)

  1. Have your ID scanned at the Admin Building, even if it has been scanned at another building. You are welcome to send a photo of the front of your ID to this email address instead of an actual visit.
  2. Final step is Board approval. Once we have your completed application, we’ll let you know when you can expect to be approved.

Links:

Independent Volunteers

https://www.marsk12.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=795617&type=d&pREC_ID=1186771

Mars Area School district Independent Volunteer Application

https://4.files.edl.io/8b37/08/29/23/152647-9c8605c7-11a7-45b4-91f2-3c16d8f10f0b.pdf

Please refer to the following web page for the most current information, application procedures, and application forms:

MASD Volunteer procedures