A timeline for all schools and departments to routinely maintain, purge, dispose and destroy records that have met the retention requirements are found in the GS1-SL and GS7 Schedules.

Records must meet or exceed the retention requirement as specified in the General Schedules before destruction can occur.

A Records Disposition Document must be completed, signed by the Principal/Director and forwarded to the Records Retention Office for review. After reviewing, the Records Retention Specialist acknowledges that the retention requirements have been met on the items submitted. Once final approval is granted by the Deputy Superintendent of Schools, an approved copy is sent to the school site/department and disposal/destruction can occur.

The recommended methods of disposal/destruction are shredding or burning. In the case of burning, a work order is requested through the Educational Facilities Department so that the records can be picked up and stored at the Educational Facilities Department until burning can occur.

Records of great importance and that are vital to the daily operations of the school district are systematically imaged and/or microfilmed. Records of historical significance are currently being imaged at the Records Retention Office.

Inactive student records are also being imaged. Vital records such as financial and budgetary information are out-sourced annually.

The School District has a plan in place for disaster recovery. Refer to the plan for specific instructions. With regards to records, the director or principal will need to assess the situation and decide what steps need to be taken to minimize the damage. To salvage records, the director/principal will need to prioritize which records are most vital or valuable and remove those records first. Vital records are defined as records that are needed to operate the school or department. Retrieving records from the disaster must be done carefully by using protective gear such as: respirators, gloves, jumpsuits, boots & goggles. Preservation of records will depend largely on the severity of damage and the time of exposure. Records should be placed in a climate controlled environment with a temperature of 60-65 degrees and humidity at 40-50 percent.

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