Employees may not use discounts offered by private companies for the employee’s personal benefit if the discount is only offered because of the employee’s official position. For example, an office supplies store provides all teachers a 10 percent discount. Because the teachers are receiving this discount only because of their official position, a teacher cannot use the discount to purchase personal items. The teachers may use the discount to purchase items for district use. Employees can also accept the discount if it is also available to a substantial segment of the population who are not public officials.
Employees may accept free passes to district extracurricular events if they are attending these events in their official capacity (i.e., chaperoning, ticket sales or managing concession sales).
The employee’s district position is not to be used to take official action that could have a financial impact on a private business with which you, a relative or member of your household are associated. For example, if your brother owns a pest-control business which is seeking a contract with the district, you must declare an actual conflict of interest in writing, describing the nature of your conflict, and provide this to your supervisor.
Confidential information gained as a district employee is not to be used to obtain a financial benefit for the employee, a relative or member of the public official’s household or a business with which any are associated. For example, you should not use the information that a student in your class is falling behind in math to provide the parents a referral to your sister’s tutoring business.
District employees who mentor student teachers may not receive direct payments from sponsoring colleges or universities. The payment may be provided by the college or university to the district, which can then distribute the compensation to the teachers as an element of their official compensation package.
District employees must follow Oregon Government Ethics Commission guidelines for outside employment if the employee acts as a chaperone for student group trips on personal time and the district employee accepts compensation in the form of travel expenses from a private business or organization. Specifically, district employees must conduct all activities related to the trip on personal time and cannot use the classroom or school environment to plan the off-campus trip. Employees may use district facilities for this purpose only if they comply with the district’s public use of facilities policy.
These restrictions do not apply if the teacher is chaperoning students on a fact-finding mission
that is officially sanctioned by the Board. The definition of a fact-finding mission is, in part, any activity related to a cultural or educational purpose. See OAR 199-005-0020(4)(a). The district employee must be directly and immediately associated with the event or location being visited. If a district employee only acts as a chaperone and does not provide instruction or guidance for the students in language usage or cultural events, the trip may not meet the requirements of ORS 244.020(5)(b)(H)(I). Further, the employee can only accept the reimbursement of reasonable travel expenses from the private company, not any further compensation.
These restrictions do not apply if the district compensates the district employee for chaperoning the trip.
(1) The district could establish a fee schedule that would allow only district employees to pay for the personal use of the district fax machines. If the district established a fee schedule for the use of fax machines the fee schedule must be equal to or exceed the prevailing rates offered at commercial businesses.