ALCOHOL, INHALANTS CITED IN SURVEY

DISTRICT 64 -- More than half of the 8th graders in Park Ridge-based
Community Consolidated School District 64 have tried alcohol and 17
percent used inhalants--intoxicating substances found in many
household products--according to a survey.

"The inhalants were something that really surprised me. But those are
the drugs that are easy for the kids to get," said Alice Davitt, a
former dean of students at Maine East who coordinated the survey and
presented the results to the school board this week.

Fifty-six percent of 8th graders have tried alcohol, with 27 percent
consuming it within a month of the survey, taken in December 2000.

Twenty-eight percent have tried cigarettes, 17 percent inhalants, 15
percent marijuana and 7 percent have tried hallucinogens, according
to the survey. Ninety-two percent of District 64 8th graders
participated in the anonymous survey.

Ten percent reported using marijuana within a month of the survey,
and 8 percent used inhalants and 5 percent used hallucinogens within
that period.

Board members also learned that district graduates outperformed
students from most public school districts that feed Maine South High
School, according to a report District 64 requested from Maine South.

The average grade point average for former District 64 students
graduating in Maine South's Class of 2000 was 2.97, second only to
students from private and parochial schools. The grade point average
of graduates from public schools outside District 64 was about 2.7.

In other action Monday the school board unanimously approved a
tentative 2001-02 budget of $40.5 million, up from the previous
year's budget of $39.4 million. The 2001-02 budget expects revenue of
about $41.6 million.

About $32.7 million has been earmarked for the education fund, $3.7
for the operations and maintenance fund, $2 million for
transportation and $1.1 million for the retirement fund.

The school board will conduct a public hearing on the budget Sept.
24, after which it is expected to formally approve it.