PEWAUKEE DRUG TESTING POLICY NOT READY YET

Village of Pewaukee - Supporters of a drug testing policy more than a year
in the making will have to wait a little longer before the School Board
votes whether to institute it at Pewaukee High School in the fall.

No Waukesha County public schools randomly screen students for drugs.

Under the proposal, any students enrolled in athletics or voluntary,
district-funded activities would be required to undergo random drug
testing. District administrators have suggested testing up to 25% of the
eligible students, about 100 per year.

But board members said at a meeting Monday that the drug testing policy
recommended by the board's Policy Committee is too vague in not specifying
who would be tested and for what.

Instead of putting that in a policy, which is controlled by the board,
committee members had opted to leave it as procedure monitored by district
administrators. Board member Chris Durski said one day the district might
be ready to give more authority to administrators, but not yet. "It's kind
of groundbreaking, and I guess I would kind of want to err on having too
much (information) in the policy," she said.

Frank Goodwin, board member and Policy Committee chairman, said the policy
was unspecific on certain aspects of drug testing because they could be
changed more easily as administrative procedure.

"I don't think we should make it as inclusive as is being suggested . . .
because we'll be revisiting it every two months," he said.

The proposed policy was sent back to Goodwin's committee for more
revisions. The board has time, as the drug testing wouldn't start until the
2004-05 school year, Superintendent JoAnn Sternke said.

Pewaukee High officials began investigating the possibility of randomly
testing athletes and students in extracurricular activities for drugs after
a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision validated the practice.

School administrators say they have gotten support from parents, student
leaders, faculty members and booster clubs.

"In fact, we've done such a good job, people think we're drug testing
already," Principal Martin Van Hulle said, referring to a rumor that a
student had beaten the school's drug test.

Drug testing could deter drug use and give students a tool to combat peer
pressure, Van Hulle said.

He emphasized to the board that he doesn't think the school has a problem
but instead is being proactive.

"I don't want the Janet Jackson-MTV world at Pewaukee," he said, "and we
work very hard that that culture doesn't creep into our environment."