MUHLENBERG SCHOOL BOARD TO REVIEW D.A.R.E. PROGRAM, MORE

The Muhlenberg County school board is expected to talk today about
upgrading the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, two high school
agriculture programs and three buildings.

During a special meeting at 5 p.m. at the Central Office in Powderly, the
board also is scheduled to hear proposals designed to improve employee
absenteeism.

County D.A.R.E. instructor Keith Whitehouse resigned July 5. The board
today will discuss how, or whether, to change or broaden the program's
focus. D.A.R.E. classes were taught to about 900 Muhlenberg County students
- -- all sixth-graders and some fifth-graders -- this past school year.

Adding one or two part-time D.A.R.E. officers in addition to a new
full-time officer is possible, said Superintendent Dale Todd.

That would allow the program to be taught in other grades and would lessen
the load on the one instructor, Todd said.

The board is scheduled to award contracts for the construction of two
30-by-60-foot greenhouses with heating systems and insulated storage rooms
at Muhlenberg North and South high schools.

The greenhouses will be used for horticulture classes to teach students
about alternatives to dwindling tobacco production, said Darrell Simpson,
the county's extension agent for agriculture and natural resources.

"There's a potential the horticulture industry could come about in the
county, as well as the state," Simpson said.

Simpson is the facilitator for the county's Phase I Agriculture Council,
which recommends uses of the state's tobacco settlement funds to the
Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy.

That office has earmarked $98,679 for the projects, said Jeff Travis, the
school system's finance officer.

That will cover most of the cost, and the board has approved paying the
rest, Travis said.

The board will also award the contract to paint Longest Elementary School,
Kentucky Tech vocational school and the district's maintenance building a
tannish-gray to match the new Muhlenberg North Middle School. Todd said he
will outline to the board an employee incentive plan similar to those used
to try to lower student absenteeism.

A teacher or administrator who doesn't miss a day, take a sick day or a
personal day would get his or her name included in a year-end drawing for a
prize -- possibly a TV, Todd said. A similar drawing would be done for
classified workers, he said.

"At a couple of our schools (during the 2001-02 year), teacher attendance
was worse than the students," Todd said.

Travis said the employee absenteeism was about five percent, which was
about average for other school districts in the region. The school system
has about 440 certified employees and about 360 classified workers, he said.