Assistant Superintendent Salvatore Petralia said last night that the custodian charged with stealing computer equipment and jewelry from the middle school would not have been hired if news reports of his criminal past are true.

Petralia told the School Committee last night the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) report for Gino Lister did not contain court information reported by Patch and other media, but has declined to elaborate on what arrest history, if any, was contained in the custodian’s background check before he was hired last spring.

The admission came during a discussion of revisions to the school department’s policy that would strengthen the procedure for checking the criminal backgrounds of potential employees.

The School Committee asked for a review of the CORI policy after news surfaced that Lister had a criminal past that included arrests on charges of assault and battery and breaking and entering.

The proposed changes aimed at strengthening the policy include adding provisions that would get the police involved in interpreting records when necessary and going directly to courts for more detailed information about arrests.

In addition, the criminal background checks would fall solely under the jurisdiction of assistant Superintendent Sal Petralia, eliminating the business office from having access to the records. In the past, Business Manager Ruth Quinn Berdell, who is now out indefinitely on a voluntary paid administrative leave, also had authority to perform CORI checks on potential and current employees.

The School Committee will vote on the new policy in January.

State law requires schools to conduct criminal background checks on all current and potential employees who may have “direct and unmonitored contact with children,” including bus and van drivers. The law also allows CORI checks on contracted laborers doing work in a school or on school grounds, as well as parent volunteers who help in classrooms and on field trips.

The checks provide information only for arrests processed through courts in Massachusetts, and based only on a person’s name, so any charges brought against the person using an alias would not show up on the report.

Fingerprints are not allowed to be used in the process of hiring for the school department, although Town Meeting recently required that fingerprint based criminal background checks be done on people applying for hawker and peddler licenses.

Before a person is hired to work in the schools they must agree to having a CORI check done, and all employees’ CORI records are rechecked every three years.

Information contained within those records is not open to the public, and must be kept separately from personnel records.

But while the schools are legally compelled to obtain CORI records, the law was recently changed to protect applicants from being discriminated against simply because of their criminal record, according to attorney James M. Pender of the firm Morgan, Brown & Joy, who works with the School Committee on labor issues.

He said the changes in the law now prevent employers from asking about criminal history on written job applications, and must wait until the final interview stage before asking verbally about a criminal record.

In addition, he said employers can not ask about arrests that did not result in a conviction; a misdemeanor conviction over 5-years-old; juvenile records; sealed records; or a first conviction for the following misdemeanors: drunkenness, simple assault, speeding, minor traffic violations, public fighting or disturbance of the peace.

Information about arrests found in court records can be obtained and used in determining suitability for employment, however.

A criminal record will not automatically prohibit a person from working in the schools, but factors considered will include: relevance of the crime to the position sought, the nature of the work to be performed, time since the conviction, age of the candidate at the time of the offense, seriousness and specific circumstances of the offense, the number of offenses, pending charges and any other relevant information.

Lister pleaded not guilty in October to larceny charges after being arrested by Wellesley Police in connection with thefts of Apple computers and other technology equipment and students’ silver jewelry projects and spools of silver from the middle school and is expected back in Dedham District Court on Jan. 11 for a pre-trial conference.

According to records in Framingham District Court, in 1998 Lister was placed on probation and ordered to pay restitution after admitting sufficient facts to a case in which he allegedly broke a man’s jaw in a fight, and three years later he was again before a judge being charged with breaking and entering and unarmed robbery. That case was continued without a finding and dismissed after a year, according to the court records.