RIFT PUTS DARE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK

Trooper Mike Polansky has had it.

For the past four years, Polansky and the other state troopers who
teach Region 13's DARE class have held their breath during budget
season as Durham and Middlefield officials squabbled about funding the
program.

This year, as the Middlefield Board of Finance prepares to cut the
program entirely from the budget -- thereby eliminating it from the
district's curriculum -- Polansky is doing more than worrying.

He's speaking out.

"The only people getting hurt here are the kids," Polansky said during
an interview last week in his Middlefield office. "This is a really
irritating issue for me."

Like many others, Polansky blames a dispute between the two towns'
finance boards for the problem. Ever since the Durham Board of Finance
decided in 1998 not to pay for its share of the program, the topic has
been a source of resentment in Middlefield.

Although the program was paid almost entirely through a $15,000 state
grant, there were about $3,000 in cost overruns that should have been
split by the towns. When Durham refused to pay, Middlefield got stuck
with paying the full amount of the overruns in both 1998 and 1999.

To resolve that problem, Polansky and his colleagues figured out a way
last fall to eliminate the cost overruns by teaching the program
entirely on overtime hours, which are covered completely by the grant.

That means all Middlefield has to do is include a line item in its
budget for the grant and cut the troopers' checks. All the paperwork,
grant applications and teaching of the program is handled by the state
police and the school district, school officials said.

Middlefield's finance board cut DARE because some members believe the
school district should fully administer the program.

Region 13 School Superintendent William Breck said he wishes it
could.

"My understanding is there is no way a school district can apply for
the DARE grant directly," Breck said. "We need a municipality to do
that. I don't know if there's any way around that rule, but I'd like
to get Middlefield out of it [the financial obligation]
completely."

DARE -- which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- is taught
by police officers to about 25 million students in classrooms across
the country and is the nation's best-known anti-drug program.

About 180 Region 13 students are introduced to the program in sixth
grade, right before they make the leap from elementary to middle
school. Although the program's effectiveness has been questioned in
recent national studies -- which is the reason Durham refused to pay
- -- educators and police largely defend the curriculum and the
relationships it fosters between police and adolescents.

Polanksy, who has been teaching DARE for 12 years in Region 13, said
he still hears from some of the students he taught his first year.
Pulling a few dog-eared photographs from his desk drawer, the trooper
points proudly to the welcoming committee of young people who greeted
him when he returned from fighting in the Persian Gulf War.

"DARE is not an end-all to the country's drug problem," Polansky said.
"But the relationships these kids make with us help them make good
decisions down the road."

Breck agreed and said his staff has contacted the state to determine
if there's any way around the budget problem.

"The program is terrific," he said. "We have to figure out a way to
appease Middlefield."

If that's even possible remains to be seen. The Middlefield Board of
Finance will hold its second budget hearing Thursday at 7 p.m. at the
community center and school officials plan to attend, Breck said.

If the board sticks to its decision to cut the program from its budget
next year, the district will have to find a way to the replace the
program. The state requires schools to teach drug education, but
doesn't specify what program it must use.

Breck said whatever replaces DARE won't be as good.

"It's either DARE, a program that works on a number of different
levels, or something else -- which, given our financial constraints,
isn't going to measure up," Breck said. "I think it's going to be
difficult."