By TARA HETTINGER
Random drug testing may become a reality for student drivers, athletes, ROTC members and fine arts students in Floyd County’s two public high schools.
At Wednesday afternoon’s New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. board work session, members talked about the status of a committee looking into implementing the drug testing, another committee studying school uniforms and setting their own school board goals.
Bill Briscoe, assistant to the superintendent for administration and operations, told the group that for $6,000, the district could test 15 or so students from Floyd Central and New Albany high schools. He said that would cover the costs of the tests, but it doesn’t account for the time administrators and counselors would have to dedicate to the program. He said he expects about 90 students a year to be tested from each school.
At this point, he said he plans to have a recommendation to approve the program to bring to the board during the first week in April.
“We don’t want this to be a punitive thing. We want to try to get help for kids,” Briscoe said.
Don Sakel, board member, said he talked with students at a school that utilizes random drug testing. “They all had positive things to say about the program,” he said. “It’s just part of their culture at their school. They thought it was a good deterrent to not be involved in those kind of things.”
Louis Jensen, FCHS principal, said the tests would also check for alcohol and prescription drugs use. He said students legally taking a prescription would have to prove that fact to the school. With the alcohol, Jensen said an issue with that is that it doesn’t stay in the bloodstream past 24 hours, meaning it won’t show up on a test after that timeframe.
Briscoe said it will be up to the board whether to approve starting this program, especially in light of pending budget cuts.
Some board members asked him to see if there were grants available to help fund the program.
UNIFORMS
Briscoe said a committee is also working to create a standard dress code, meaning each building would have the same list of what is and isn’t allowed. However, he said schools can go through a process of setting up a committee, getting parental support and board approval to make their individual building more strict, such as by having uniforms.
He said the standard policy will also detail the punishments for each offense, including out of school suspension if a student regularly re-offends.
Briscoe said the list of restrictive items will be lengthy.
Lee Ann Wiseheart, board vice president, is one of the two board members on the committee setting the overall standard.
“I learned what a grill was. I thought it was something you cook on, but it’s not,” she said talking about mouth jewelry. “It was an educational committee!”
Briscoe said he expects to bring the district-wide policy to the board for a vote toward the end of March.
SETTING GOALS
Due to hiring a new superintendent, setting and voting on school board goals kept getting pushed back from this summer until now.
On Wednesday, the board reviewed a list of preliminary goals to see if they still stood before taking it to the board meeting Monday for a final vote.
Some of the remaining goals include: All schools will achieve Adequate Yearly Progress, the district will engage the community to have a better working relationship with the school corporation and the district will enhance the integrity of its educational program. One of the continuing statements of support says the district will continue to support discussion with the teachers’ association to improve relations, which result in a positive climate for student learning.
• The next school board meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m., Jan. 25.
