SCHOOL BOARD ADOPTS DRUG POLICY

PARKERSBURG - After months of debate, the Wood County Board of Education
quietly passed a revised version of the district's employee drug policy
Tuesday evening.

The board voted 4-0 in favor of accepting the fifth revision of Wood County
Schools' Drug-Free Workplace Policy. Board member Harley Bailey was absent
due to illness. No discussion was held on the revised policy Tuesday night.
Board members have debated the wording of the policy and how strict the
penalties should be for an employee bringing drugs onto school grounds.

The policy only recently came under scrutiny after a Parkersburg High
School teacher was cited for misdemeanor drug possession at the school in
November.

John Mark Miller, a social studies teacher at the school, pleaded guilty
Tuesday in Wood County Magistrate court to possession of less than 15 grams
of marijuana. The drugs were discovered Nov. 20 in Miller's vehicle during
a routine drug sweep at the school.

On Tuesday, Miller received the mandatory sentence of six months of
unsupervised probation and was assessed $120 in court costs.

Magistrate Brenda Marshall said Tuesday if Miller finishes the probation
period and an additional six months without incident, he can have the
charge expunged from his record.

On Dec. 10 the school board gave Miller a 15-day suspension without pay and
a formal reprimand, the highest penalties allowed under the old policy.

Several board members argued that the penalties were too lenient and that
they felt hampered by the policy in their attempts to address Miller's actions.

The revised policy allows an employee to be suspended for upwards of 90
days on first offense and allows for termination on a second offense. No
minimum suspension is set in the policy.

Jim Fox, who first advocated strengthening the policy, said Wednesday he
was pleased with the final result.

"I think it (the revised policy) is an improvement over what we first had,"
he said. "It gives us greater latitude in addressing the severity of an
offense. The old policy was too restrictive. This one gives us more options."

The December action was the first time in 12 years that the policy had come
into use. Since then it has undergone five board revisions.

Fox's original proposed revisions came under fire last month by local and
state teachers' unions who said the board was locking itself into handing
down harsh penalties on employees without regard to mitigating
circumstances. Fox had originally proposed a minimum 90-day unpaid
suspension on first offense with an option for the board to fire an
employee without a recommendation from the superintendent.

State and local representatives of the West Virginia Federation of Teachers
protested the changes, saying the penalties were too harsh and unyielding
and that the board was sending a negative message to its employees.

Craig Clinton, a teacher at Parkersburg High School and president of the
local federation, said several teachers raised concerns that an employee
could be targeted by a student or other party by having drugs or alcohol
planted on them or among their possessions at school. Under some of the
early policy revisions, the board would be unable to consider any
mitigating circumstances surrounding an incident and would be forced to
hand down the maximum penalty.

Other board members echoed those concerns at several board meetings,
leading to further revisions in the policy.

"We had no problem with them changing some of the parameters of the
policy," Clinton said. "We just wanted a seat at the table."

Fox, however, said the union's presentation had no affect on his decisions
regarding the policy.

"If anything, I think it (the federation's presentation) helped
substantiate the need for a stronger policy," he said.

Fox said he did meet with members of the Wood County Education Association
who voiced concerns over the policy as well.

Clinton said the union's argument against the policy revisions had nothing
to do with Miller's case, only the board's reaction to its first use of the
drug-free workplace policy.

"If the first time you have to use a policy you scramble to change it, why
would you have that policy in the first place?" he said. "We were
responding to the board's sudden reaction."

Miller filed a formal grievance against the school board with the local
West Virginia Education and State Employees Grievance Board. A hearing was
held Feb. 2 in Charleston, but the school district has not yet heard the
results of that hearing, said Superintendent Bill Niday.

"That we have not heard anything yet ... that is not unusual," he said.

The district has not released any details of the hearing because it
surrounds a personnel issue.

Lawyer Joseph Albright, who represents Miller, did not return phone calls
Wednesday.