AMBRIDGE AREA TO ELIMINATE DRUG-TESTING FEE

AMBRIDGE - Some parents in Ambridge Area School District will probably
have a little lighter back-to-school burden since school board
directors agreed Wednesday to eliminate a $30 drug-and-alcohol testing
fee for athletes and others at the high school.

The decision to eliminate the drug testing fee must be formally
approved at an Aug. 18 board meeting, but Superintendent Erv
Weischedel asked for a straw vote at Wednesday's workshop meeting and
no directors offered resistance.

"(Eliminating the fee) is the route I'd like to see us go," director
Kevin Joy, who initiated the discussion in June, said.

In June, the district created a $50 pay-to-participate fee for
athletes in the high school and junior high school to avoid slashing
several athletic programs. Board members were hesitant to ask families
for $80 at the start of the year.

"We're all for taking some of the burden off families," board
president Kimberly Locher said.

A year ago, parents of athletes, band members, club members, and
students who drive to school, paid $30 for a mandatory drug and
alcohol test at the start of the school year, and the district paid
for random testing throughout the school year.

Random testing, for which the district has budgeted $13,000, will
continue. Athletic director Randy Cosgrove said that between 12 and 15
students had positive tests for drugs in the 2009-2010 school year,
but noted some of the positive tests were the result of prescribed
drugs.

"Our hope is that (the reduced drug testing plan) will have the same
effect, as a major deterrent for children dabbling in drugs or
alcohol," Weischedel said.