ECISD WILLING TO CONSIDER D-FY-IT

While the idea has not formally been brought before the Ector County school
board, trustees said they'd be willing to talk about taking over D-FY-IT.

"I'd discuss it," Ector County Independent School District board member
Bill Rutherford said.

Drug Free Youth in Texas is an anti-drug program that has been administered
through the Odessa Police Department to Ector County high school and junior
high students since 1991.

However, at the end of the school year, the police department plans to give
up the program. Chief Chris Pipes has said he needs all of his officers on
the streets to help fight crime.

Pipes said he hopes someone will take over the

program, but no one has stepped forward yet.

Most ECISD trustees expressed confidence in the anti-drug program but
didn't know if ECISD has the resources to take over administration from the
police department.

"It's a really important project," trustee Doyle Woodall said. "I
understand these budget problems and the need for more officers on the
street. I just don't really know that anyone can be as effective doing that
as the OPD. I don't know that it would across with the same urgency."

However, Woodall said he supports the program and would like to see it
continue.

"Anytime that you're working with young people and helping them to shape
their character and goals and the direction they want to head in, there's
nothing more important than that," he said.

Trustee Floy Hinson also said he'd like to see the program remain.

"I'd hate to see it go by the wayside," Hinson said. "It seems to me that
it prevents students from getting involved with that. You're saving
potential trouble down the way, on the streets and otherwise. The concept
is great, and I'd hate to see it go."

However, like many others, Hinson expressed some reservations.

"I would want to hear what the total cost of it would be, or if we'd use
our own policemen," he said. "I'd like to know how much of an imposition it
would be on them if we used our own officers. There's just some facts I'd
want to know before picking that up."

ECISD Police Chief Henry Jackson has said he's not certain his department
could handle the added responsibility.

"We don't have the manpower," Jackson said. "It's a full-time job for two
police officers."

Jackson said with a crime rate on the rise, his department faces the same
problems as the Odessa Police Department with using manpower for the program.

Superintendent Wendell Sollis said if the school district does indeed pick
up the program, it would be a group effort.

"Adela Vasquez over counseling, if we pick it up, would work with Chief
Jackson because peace officers have to work with that," Sollis said. "We
would probably include SAS (Student Assistance Services) as well."

Sollis said it is still very early to determine what ECISD's role might be.

"Really, the only thing we could do this year is just the planning or
discussion phase of what we would do," he said. "At this point, the changes
are being talked about.

"We'll continue to look at it and see what we'll do or not do," he said.

Trustee L.V. "Butch" Foreman, said he's not certain it's the board's
responsibility to consider the program, though he's open to discussion
about it.

"It's up to us to set policy," Foreman said. "It's up to the administrators
to keep programs in place that help the kids."

Foreman said he would like to gather more information before making a
decision about the program, which his children are a part of.

Trustee Renda Berryhill also has school-age children in the anti-drug program.

"It's an excellent program," she said. "It's been a program my kids have
been a part of for years."

Berryhill said she would gladly looking in to whether ECISD could take over
the program.

"I'd love to look at all the details of it, and see if that's a
possibility," she said.

Board President W.R. "Randy" Rives said before the issue of taking up the
program could even come before the board, several others steps would
probably come first.

"I think we'd need to put it to the Health Advisory Council and see how it
plays in with everything else we're trying to do," he said. "It would be a
process -- we'd have to turn it over to curriculum. There'd be a lot of
work to do before it would come to the board, I'd assume."

Rives said he has lots of questions he'd like to see answered.

"Have they got time to even teach it? Or could volunteers do it? There's a
lot of ways it could be approached," he said. "We're going to have to look
at the school and how much we can do in an eight-hour day."

Repeated efforts to reach Trustee Carol Gregg were unsuccessful last week.

Woodall said the anti-drug program is effective, and whether or not ECISD
can continue it, someone needs to.

"I think it's very important, and I think it's a shame the Odessa Police
Department is giving it up, even though I understand why," he said.

"Someone definitely ends to pick up the reins on that," he said. "I don't
know if ECISD would be the best for that or not, but definitely someone
needs to pick it up and run with it."