STUDENT WELCOMES DRUG-TEST POLICY

CURRITUCK -- At least one student-athlete believes Currituck County
High School officials won't have trouble enforcing the school
district's new drug-testing policy next fall.

Chelsea Kovach, 16, said she's optimistic because the policy is the
brainchild of the "Dream Team," the group of student-athletes who
serve as mentors to elementary and middle school students.

"We decided as a group we needed a policy for our school," Kovach
said. "We are role models to younger students.

Our athletes are a showcase of what Currituck is about."

Under the policy, which the Currituck Board of Education approved last
month, students in grades 9-12 are subject to random drug tests if
they participate in athletics or other voluntary extracurricular
activities, or if they have parking privileges on the school campus.
Modelled on Dare County's approach, Currituck's drug testing policy
offers some leeway for first-time offenders.

When a student tests positive for the first time, the school is not
notified and the student can continue to participate in activities,
provided his or her parents submit a doctor's note to a medical review
officer.

Consequences then escalate with each positive test that follows and
substance abuse counseling is encouraged. Kovach, a rising junior
softball player, she personally knows of teammates who have used drugs
in the past. Wanting to take a stand against drug use, she and six
other Dream Team members, including Ethan Gallop, who was killed in a
car accident last month, pitched the idea of a drug-testing policy. So
far, the Dream Team has received plenty of support from school
officials, Kovach said. She expects students to support the policy as
well. "I believe students at the high school will cooperate," Kovach
said. While the policy calls for up to 50 percent of eligible students
to be tested throughout the year, school officials said Monday about
100 tests -- less than 10 percent of the entire student body -- would be
conducted during the first year.

"It's a start," School Superintendent C. Michael Warren said. Also
Monday, the Board of Education agreed to a contract with Sport Safe
Testing Service, Inc. to conduct the drug tests.

Sport Safe, which also serves Dare County, will provide urine tests at
$27 each. In other business, the board: Passed an interim 2007-08
budget resolution; Renewed its driver's education contract with
North Carolina Driving School; and Approved granting teachers a
duty-free lunch period and adjusted its graduation requirements to
reflect changes to state requirements.