From: Keith Tuominen
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 4:42 PM
To: Leslie Roach; High School Principals
Cc: Matthew Pate; Mark Sontag
Subject: RE: Text book fines

I see the dilemma but I feel like we will have bigger problems than an extra book if we are charging fees that are not approved through Ed. Code. Also, because we are expanding as a district we are likely to need books moving forward.

Monica brought up their problem with semester classes as well. There isn’t an easy answer except to charge them for the whole book, holding privileges until it is paid or the book is returned.

Ultimately you could charge fees but if it got appealed or a complaint was filed with OCR, or similar, I don’t think we would win.

Keith Tuominen, Ed.D.

From: Leslie Roach
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 2:06 PM
To: Keith Tuominen; High School Principals
Cc: Matthew Pate; Mark Sontag
Subject: RE: Text book fines

Keith,

One thing to keep in mind with the summer fees is that when books do not come back, it reaches a point where we have to buy the book so we have enough copies for kids coming back from the summer. If they bring the book back after the summer, we have already purchase a new book. Does that make sense?

From: Keith Tuominen
Sent: Monday, August 27, 2012 11:07 AM
To: High School Principals
Cc: Matthew Pate; Mark Sontag
Subject: RE: Text book fines

We have talked about this some at the District level and believe that charging daily fees for lost textbooks is not a good place to go.

I also checked with Mark Bresee as the “fines” could really be labeled as “fees”.

He believes that the library book fines are probably embedded into the culture, along with public library fines, so it is likely not an issue. However, there is no statue that specifically authorizes such late fees.

Mark states that Ed Code allows us to charge for lost textbooks for replacement or damage, but it does not allow us to charge fees for them being late.

We can certainly have further discussion on this topic but those of us that have discussed it at the D.O. (Cassie, Mark S., and myself) believe we should not charge fines for textbooks unless they are damaged or lost. In addition, in order to keep as many good relationships with the community as possible, accepting books later once they are found seems to be a good practice. Because we are a growing district, purchasing additional books does not pose a problem. We will likely not get stuck with the books if we order some based on originally thinking they are lost.

Let me know if you have additional ideas/concerns in this area.

Keith Tuominen, Ed.D.

Director of Secondary Education

Irvine Unified School District

949-936-5047

From: Monica Colunga
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 3:15 PM
To: John Pehrson; High School Principals
Cc: Matthew Pate
Subject: RE: Text book fines

Hi Guys,

Below is what we sent out to our community on June 8th. We needed to have a method to recover our loss for books that we re-ordered after July 1st. We will be working with those families to create a payment plan if need be.

Monica

Dear Parents,

Please take note of the following Library Policy Notice:

SENIORS: The DUE DATE FOR ALL LIBRARY BOOKS is MAY 30th, and the due

date for textbooks is June 15th. All books must be returned and/or all fines must be

paid before a student can get his or her diploma and/or transcripts.

NON-SENIORS (9th-11th grade): The due date for library books is June 12th and for

textbooks is June 21st.

*Important: Any textbook that is not turned in by its May or June due date will accrue late

Charges (of $5 + $1/day), and if NOT turned in before July 1st will be marked “lost” and assigned the

replacement cost (we cannot accept textbooks back after June 30th, as we will be placing replacement orders at this time).

Monica Colunga, Ed. D.

Principal

Irvine High School

949-936-7005

From: John Pehrson
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2012 2:11 PM
To: High School Principals
Cc: Matthew Pate
Subject: Text book fines

Principals,

Are you guys making everyone who didn’t return a book by June 30 pay for all outstanding books, even if they bring the book to registration? I guess the librarians decided that it was going to be the new policy. We never talked about that as a group. jp