DRUG-TESTING OPTIONS, COST STILL QUESTIONS FOR USD 466

Two months after the Scott City board of education started discussing a
drug-testing program for students in the district, two fundamental
questions remain: Who will be tested, and how much it will cost the district?

District officials said they expect to have these questions resolved in
time to put the program in place for the next school year.

When the testing program was proposed in January, concerns were raised
about testing only those students involved in extracurricular activities, a
selection process for testing students that courts have consistently
upheld. Scott City residents and parents have said testing only those
students might target a particular group while overlooking another, said
USD 466 Board of Education member Marvin Zorn.

At last week's board of education meeting, committee members investigating
the policy proposed a version that would allow parents to voluntarily enter
their students' in the testing program.

During the fall semester, about 215 of the 330 students enrolled at Scott
Community High School were involved in extracurricular activities. Another
option the district is exploring was having a voluntary testing program for
the entire student body that would allow parents to decide whether they
wanted their students to participate.

The board formed a committee following the January meeting to investigate
the options for implementing the program, but Athletic Director John Kern,
the committee's chairman, said the committee had met one time and that his
main concern was funding the program.

"Each sport has a certain budget," he said. "If we have to cut back on that
to pay for testing, that's my concern."

The committee is scheduled to meet again April 7, Kern said, this time with
representatives from Sport Safe, an Ohio-based testing company that assists
districts with setting up testing programs.

Scott City Superintendent Dean Katt said that while the program's cost was
a concern, it is something the district could control based on the number
of students tested.

"We're not going to let that hold us back," Katt said, adding that the
district is researching grant options to off-set some of those costs. If
the district were to only test those students involved in extracurricular
activities, the costs would be between $5,500 and $6,500, annually.

Zorn said those costs could end up being passed on to taxpayers in Scott
City because the district funds extracurricular activities with tax dollars
to ensure every student can participate who wants to. If the tests were
limited to those students in extracurricular activities, he said, the
district would have to ask those parents or the taxpayers to foot the bill.

"How can we alleviate passing this burden on to families," Zorn asked.

The answer to that question, he said, was ensuring that the district and
the testing program had broad-based community support.

"We want to keep the support of the entire community in this process," Zorn
said. "It's a pretty broad situation you get into when you're setting up
something like this."

So far, the community's response has been mixed, Zorn said, with some
wondering if the district is going too far with the proposal and others
wondering if the testing program goes far enough. Neither side has been
particularly vocal, he said.

Zorn said he expected the research committee would give the board a report
at its next meeting, April 19, so the board could begin work on a
resolution to make sure the program is in place by the beginning of the
2004 fall semester. Even then, he said, the initial version of the testing
program might not resemble the finished product.

"Phasing it in is another option," he said.

For example, during the first year, the district could test only students
in extracurricular activities.

"If that works well, and there's no negative feedback, we can phase it into
the whole school," Zorn said.

Other districts have had success using a similar method, and this would
allow districts more time to keep an eye on pertinent court cases, Zorn said.

"There are a couple of cases pending," he said. "When those are all
settled, I think it will come out in favor of (broad-based) testing because
it needs to be done, just basically for some of the things that have
happened around the country."