SCHOOLS FIND THE MONEY TO REVIVE DRUG PROGRAM

Pleas From Parents Keep DARE Afloat. Parents' Pleas Save Dare From
Dying

The DARE program will remain in the Rosemount-Eagan-Apple Valley school
district's classrooms, the result of parents who were upset by the decision
to cut the anti-drug program two months ago.

District administrators have found the $50,000 needed to pay for the
program and the school board voted earlier this week to keep the program in
the district's 18 elementary schools next year.

"It was a battle, but it was a battle that was well heard," said Leslie
Whitley, a parent at Echo Park Elementary who was among a group of more
than 20 who came to a board meeting Monday night. Several parents made
impassioned pleas to keep the anti-drug education program alive.

"As long as they could fund it without hurting other parts of the school
district, we thought it was OK," Whitley said.

The DARE program for fifth-graders was one casualty of the district's $6
million worth of spending reductions in next year's budget. The failure of
a levy referendum in November prompted the district to make the cuts in
December.

The money for the DARE program will come from the salaries and benefits
that had been earmarked for Alan Hopeman, the district's former finance
director, and the former communications director, Tony Taschner. Both left
in January for new jobs. The finance position is expected to be filled in
the next couple of months and Taschner's spot will be filled sometime this
summer, said Ellen Rogalin, administrative assistant to the superintendent.

The move to keep DARE was opposed by only one board member, Judy Lindsay.
She said she voted against reinstating the program in December because it
takes time away from academics and it has not been proven to be effective,
not because of the cost. On Monday she tried to remove the item from the
board's agenda and to delay the vote, and later suggested that DARE be
offered after school and on weekends so it doesn't cut into academics.

Earlier in the meeting, board members Rob Duchscher and Bruce Endler had
criticized letters written by Lindsay's husband, Mike, which appeared in
weekly suburban newspapers. Mike Lindsay, an official with the state's
Republican Party, has chastised the school board for its spending decisions.

"It's definitely a political arena," Whitley said after the meeting, adding
that she ultimately thought the process worked well. "We found there were a
lot of people that were unhappy with the (initial) board decision" to cut
DARE, and that prompted parents to get themselves organized. "When you
believe in something the work that comes with it is OK," she said.

Kevin Sampers, a board member who originally voted against reinstating
DARE, said that vote was about money and the district's budget trouble. Now
that the district has identified money to pay for DARE, "my only concern is
that if another large group comes to us" about another program that was
cut, the board has to realize it can't reverse itself, he said.