SCHOOL BOARD APPROVES STUDENT DRUG TESTING

MARSHFIELD -- In a close vote of 4-3, the Marshfield Board of Education
voted to adopt a policy of random drug testing of students. All board
members were present at the meeting held Monday evening, along with
Marshfield city attorney Chuck Replogle.

The testing program will go into effect for this school year, and will be
administered to students in both the junior and high schools. The program
will be mandatory for all students who wish to participate in any
extracurricular or co-curricular activity, including sports, band,
cheerleading, drama and advanced speech.

The decision follows months of review, study groups and input from parents
and other community residents. After much discussion on the controversial
issue, the board ended up deciding that this was, at the least, a place to
begin to curb what many perceive as a serious problem of drug use in
Marshfield schools.

The procedure is as follows: Each student wishing to participate in any
extracurricular or co-curricular activity will be required to complete a
consent form and return it to the school office within the first 10 days of
school. Any newly enrolling student will have 10 days from the date of
enrollment to sign and return the consent form. Any student not completing
and returning the consent form within the prescribed time will be
ineligible to participate in the aforementioned activities for the entire
school year.

Why just students that are involved in extra and co-curricular activities?
Several attorneys have reviewed drafts of the proposal, and concur with the
reasoning that although it is a "right" of every student in the school
district to attend a public school, it is deemed a "privilege" for that
student to participate in extra and co-curricular activities.

Any student that does not participate in activities can also voluntarily be
added to the drug testing pool.

A computer will randomly select the names of 10 high school students and
five junior high students approximately every two weeks from the testing
pool. In addition, one voluntary staff member will also be chosen at random
and tested.

A certified third party will administer the test, using a federally
approved toxicology laboratory. The lab shall be required to have written
specifications to assure chain of custody of the specimens, proper
laboratory control and scientific testing.

School administrators have been careful and diligent to ensure that all
aspects of the drug testing program, including the taking of specimens, are
conducted in a way as to safeguard the personal and privacy rights of
students and staff to the maximum degree possible.

The idea of drug testing was put before the student body last school year,
and in an anonymous survey, 62 percent of students that responded to the
survey thought a drug testing program was a good idea.

Part of the cost of this program will be obtained through Title IV monies,
and the Marshfield Booster Club is willing to help with the cost if necessary.

The selection of the company to perform the testing is still to be
determined, and a few words are to be added here and there, but the final
policy will be ready for the 2003-04 student handbook which will be
available in a couple of weeks for school registration.

During the public board meeting, Marshfield High School Principal Jan Hibbs
said she'd "prefer to err on the side of caution," and school board
president Jo Walker said she still had some concerns with the testing
appeal process and the parent notification process.

Board member Dennis Robinson said the five-panel test to be administered
would not detect some of the drugs that kids were using, and Bill Bartow
expressed concern over the fairness of the testing procedure.

But, in the end, the school board decided to join the growing number of
schools that feel drug testing is necessary in an effort to protect the
health and safety of students from illegal drug use.

Board members Michele Day, James Greer, Pat Blinzler and Jo Walker voted
for the testing. Robinson, Bartow and Jim Baldwin voted against.

The board also decided at the meeting to join the Committee for Educational
Equality. Tyler Laney, school superintendent at Crane, presented
information about the committee, whose mission is to pursue legal action
against the state of Missouri due to the inequality of funding found across
the state. Laney said the lawsuit would probably be a two-to three-year
process, and the committee was prepared "to go all the way to the Supreme
Court."

Currently, about 120 school districts, representing over 100,000 students,
are involved with the committee, whose goal is to modify the foundation
formula that allocates funding to schools.

As an example, Laney used the Clayton school district, an affluent St.
Louis area, as comparison to rural school districts, which have suffered
the most with funding that is neither "fair nor rationally reasonable."

A pupil in the Clayton area, said Laney, is allowed about $8,000-$9,000
more than a student in the Marshfield or Crane school district.

The board voted to approve membership in the committee, at a cost of $1 per
student, plus an initial membership fee of $200.

Bids for food supplies and services were opened and discussed. Banta Foods
won the bid for dairy products, and Interstate Brands (Wonder Bread) was
awarded the bakery business. Brooks Gas was the only bidder for LP-natural
gas, as was E-Z Disposal for trash disposal service.

The board voted to raise the price of school lunches by five cents for the
new school year.

The new lunch prices will be: $1.60 for high school, $1.35 for junior high,
and $1.20 for elementary lunches. The price of breakfast will stay the same
as last year - $1.00 at the elementary schools, and $1.15 at the junior and
high school. This is only the second time in six years that the price of
school lunches has been raised.

In other business, the school board accepted a donation from the Webster
Electric Round-Up fund in the amount of $5,500, to be used to repair the
brick walkway in the Secret Garden at Hubble Elementary.

Kim Potter, a sixth-grade teacher, was present at the meeting to request
permission to apply for several grants to start up an outdoor classroom at
Shook Elementary.

The outdoor classroom will be used to teach habitat conservation and
natural resources, and will include a star gazing platform. The school
board voted to approve the request, which will not require any matching
funds from the district.

Summer school attendance was briefly discussed at the meeting before the
board adjourned to closed session.