But looming changes to state law may force later rewriting
By:Eileen Oldfield
Despite pending state legislation that could change laws on conducting random drug tests, the Board of Education approved a plan to draft a random drug test policy last week.
The move came despite objections from board members Frank Blandino and John Donnadio who questioned the wisdom of writing a draft policy that will likely need to be rewritten after the new legislation takes effect. In response to Mr. Blandino and Mr. Donnadio’s objection, the board agreed to obtain quote from the board’s lawyers on the cost of writing the draft.
While the board will have a draft policy written, the board attorney has recommended waiting on state legislation before implementing the policy. The legislation would specify the type of labs that could perform the drug tests, and could raise the cost of processing the tests.
Currently, random drug tests cost between $10 and $15 to process each test. If state legislation specifies the type of lab needed to process the tests; the per-test processing cost could rise to between $60 and $80.
"We could choose how many times a month we wanted to do this," said Policy Committee Chairman David Kanaby. "It could be 10, it could be one, it could be 100. Based on our budget constraints, there are a lot of variables to play out."
Purchasing a policy draft didn’t sit well with board members Mr. Blandino and Mr. Donnadio; they noted the cost of drafting and additional costs involved in implementing a policy.
"Why do we want to spend money on a possible drafting of a drug reports if we don’t know what the state is going to do?" said Mr. Blandino. "I don’t see the need to spend legal fees on something where we don’t know what’s going to happen."
At present, the district has no random drug test policy and the draft would mark the first such policy for the district. If approved, the policy would decide whether random drug tests would occur in the district, and on whom.
A public hearing on the policy would need to occur before the policy could be implemented, however.
"I’m not sure a random drug test policy is going to benefit the district or is going to benefit the students in the district," said Mr. Donnadio. "These potential benefits of a random drug test policy don’t outweigh the costs of working with the state and working with the new regulations, and some of the legal costs that the district is going to face as far as litigation."
Mr. Kanaby stated that there was concern about needing to collect new data if the board delayed drafting the policy.
The Board of Education has been considering a random drug test policy since 2004, and surveyed parents and students regarding the tests.
This year’s survey, taken between March and June,received 800 responses; Mr. Kanaby reported that most favored random drug tests.