HILLSBORO CAN VOICE OPINIONS ON DRUG TESTING

Board to Disclose Policy on Random Student Drug Testing at Next
Month's Meeting.

HILLSBOROUGH -- The public can voice opinions on plans to implement
random student drug testing at Hillsborough High School next month
before the Board of Education makes a final decision about it.

Scheduling conflicts had caused Board of Education members to move
the public hearing from this month to the 7:30 p.m. work meeting on
Jan. 3. School board member David Kanaby, chairman of the board's
Policy Committee, said the board's attorney is drafting a policy for
the random drug testing which, if approved, would be implemented in
the 2008-09 school year.

The meeting is expected to include an overview of the policy, results
from a student drug survey, the cost to draft and implement the
policy, as well as public and board input on the draft.

To date, Policy Committee members are the only board members who have
seen the draft. Other board members are expected to review the draft
before Jan. 3. At least three board members have publicly disclosed
their opposition to the plan and want to attend the meeting,
including board member Frank Blandino, who also is the township's
municipal prosecutor.

The proposed policy would mirror the one used at Hunterdon Central
Regional High School in Raritan Township: Hillsborough students
participating in athletics, extracurricular activities, school clubs
and those who drive to school would be subject to random testing.

Hillsborough school officials began discussing random student drug
testing last year after an online board study last year found that 70
percent of 800 study participants favored random drug testing.

The Board of Education also has been awaiting new state regulations
on the measure. In July, a hearing in Trenton among state Board of
Education members, school principals and the Drug-Free Schools
Coalition focused on proposed new rules by the state Board of
Education that would require state-licensed clinical labs to collect
and test urine samples for a variety of recreational drugs. The state
lab tests, which could run up to $60 each, are quintuple the $12 swab
tests administered by school nurses.

Hillsborough Superintendent of Schools Edward Forsthoffer III said
the new procedures will be incorporated into the draft policy for the
Board of Education's review. The board must also decide how to fit
the cost of the new regulations into the school budget.

Kanaby said the district chose Hunterdon Central as a model because
that district won a 2002 state Supreme Court case that challenged the
school's random drug testing policy. The school, which enrolls about
3,100 students, with 2,700 in the testing pool, also has used urine
screening as part of the program.