Becoming a volunteer for the Bainbridge Island School District may get a whole lot simpler.

After last year’s debacle over screening school volunteers, the district has worked closely with the Bainbridge Island Police Department to adopt a fingerprinting system that’s faster and more accurate.

“One of the things we really learned was we had to update and really formalize more of our work with volunteers,” said District Superintendent Faith Chapel. “We operate so informally here on Bainbridge.”

The traditional “ink-and-roll” method of obtaining fingerprint records, Chapel said, is an outdated process.

Once a potential employee or volunteer’s “ink-and-roll” fingerprints are sent out they can take up to six weeks to process and many times they come back rejected by the state patrol for not being readable.

The applicant has to then pay the fee a second time to redo the fingerprinting.

An electronic fingerprinting system, on the other hand, says immediately if the fingerprints are not readable and can be redone at no cost.

Prints also take just three days to process.

Currently, the closest electronic fingerprinting system is in Bremerton, but not for much longer.

“In researching, we just found that there was a lot more that we needed to do in the safety and security end with volunteers,” Chapel said.

The district and police department ordered a new electronic fingerprinting system this summer.

The bundled scanning system includes a laptop, software, printer and other fingerprinting gear.

The electronic fingerprinting system costs about $10,000, and under a contract with the city, the school district will pick up $5,000 of the cost of the equipment.

Chapel emphasized that the new electronic system will be beneficial for not only incoming employees, but also volunteers who spend extended amounts of time with students.

These include volunteer coaches and volunteers who travel with students to various school events.