EDUCATION SAID AIM OF DRUG TESTING POLICY

School district officials continue to work on the details of a proposed
school drug-testing policy this month with Superintendent of Education
Michael D. Kent reporting mostly strong support from the community over the
issue.

At Monday's regular meeting of the county School Board, members continued
to delve into the issue of a new drug testing policy to be implemented in
schools district wide.

So far no action has been taken, but officials are conferring with a
special committee made up of student body representatives from all of the
county's high schools and junior high schools and their principals.

While Kent said he feels there has been overwhelming support for the
board's efforts so far, any concerned parents or students are encouraged to
seek out their school administrators or school's PTO leadership and discuss
any concerns they might have.

Kent also gave the option for the public to voice concerns directly to his
office as well.

The overall drug testing policy will come in two parts, a suspicion-based
policy and random-based drug testing for all those students involved in
co-curricular activities.

While no specific details have been released on either portion, Kent said
the board will exhaust its resources ironing out specific details and
implementation techniques before ever voting it into effect.

Kent said by establishing a drug-testing policy the board is not attempting
to entrap students or establish fear in the student body. He said they are
simply trying to educate them on the dangers of drugs while also giving
them a reason to say no.

"There's no intention by the board to run some 'gotcha' campaign or run out
and catch somebody," Kent said. "The board has gone to great lengths to be
fair and part of that is by involving the student government.

"The student council representatives have been heavily involved and have
had tremendous input into this thing," he continued. "At this point, to my
knowledge, there are no student council members who think there is
something unfair about this."

While the board is close to completing the details on the suspicion-based
policy, Kent said he is under the impression they would like to finalize
both of the different types of drug policies and adopt them at the same
time at a future meeting.

In other board business:

. School officials report as many as 10 interested parties have contacted
the district over making bids on dirt work to be done at the site of the
new Madison Station Elementary School. Bids on the project will be opened
this Friday.

Kent said the recent weather is playing a negative role on the process,
however, because of the difficulty officials are having actually getting to
the site.

Architects are currently working on the design of the new building with
their final proposals expected within a couple of weeks.

Kent said they hope to award the building contract in early spring in hopes
builders can meet their move in deadline of August 2004. The project is
expected to take as long as 14 months.