NISD BOARD PASSES DRUG POLICY

The Needville Independent School District board of trustees Wednesday
approved a policy that will require students who drive vehicles to
school and students who participate in extracurricular activities to
be randomly tested for drug use.

The board voted unanimously on the matter, with trustee Wayne Ley
absent from the meeting.

Superintendent Gary Gazaway said Thursday morning students "will have
to agree to be in the pool" for random drug-testing in order to be
involved in school-related extracurricular activities or to drive
their vehicles to school.

Trustees hired Pinnacle Employee Testing Service to perform the
random drug-testing. Gazaway said Pinnacle conducts the tests in more
schools than any other company in the state.

The board also approved a number of other agenda items, including
campus discipline management plans for the junior high and high
schools. An additional step was added to the latter, bringing the
total number of steps to four before assigning a student to NISD's
alternative campus. The fourth step, said Gazaway, will be to assign
a student to 10 days of in-school suspension.

At the urging of the district's bond advisers, trustees approved
refinancing the NISD's 1998 and 2001 bonds at a lower interest rate,
saving the district a total of $612,700 through the year 2022.

A facility use request from Creekside Christian Fellowship was also
approved by the board. The church meets at the junior high campus on
Sundays, and requested to be allowed to continue to do so for the
next six months while its new facility is constructed on Highway 36
South, across form the high school.

Other agenda items approved by trustees include: bids for cafeteria
and petroleum products for the 2005-06 school year; a policy for
usage of NISD computers by students and teachers; the adding of a
nursing staff member to the NISD Sick Bank Committee which reviews
employee leaves and absences; the district's activities and awards
handbook; the addition of a jazz band as a course offering at the
high school for 2005-06; and the Student Code of Conduct and the
Employee Handbook for the upcoming school year.

Trustees discussed the appointment of a Bond Committee, but decided
to wait for the results of a demographics study currently being
conducted for the district.

The board tables agenda items calling for a revision of band director
duties and stipends, salary schedule and stipends for NISD employees
and operating budget preparation for the 2005-06 school year, opting
to address those matters at its upcoming budget workshop tentatively
scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10.