 By
a unanimous vote, the Holden R-III Board of Education put in place
a new, more stringent, drug testing policy for students in grades
seven through 12.
The policy, which became effective after the vote at the board’s regular
meeting Monday night, will require students who wish to participate in extracurricular
activities as well as any student who wishes to park on school property to submit
to random drug testing throughout the school year.
Students and their parents also must sign a consent form to be tested or they
will not be allowed to participate in the activities or park on school property.
In view of the new policy, R-III district activities director Kelli Spies has
scheduled a drug testing policy informational meeting for Tuesday, August 22
at 7 p.m. in the Holden High School gymnasium. At the meeting, the newly-adopted
policy will be covered and consent forms signed.
According to Spies, if the student and parent cannot attend, they must
meet with her before the student can participate in an activity or park on school
property.
Those affected include all students grades seven through 12 who are going to
participate in athletics, band, choir, FFA, FCCLA, science olympiad, academic
bowl, forensics, math relays, winter guard, flag team, FBLA, cheerleading, as
well as any student who plans to park on school property during the school day.
The activities director also stated the deadline for the consent forms to be
signed is August 31. Students will be allowed to park on school property
without a consent form until that date.
The policy recognizes that drug abuse is a serious problem and schools, including
Holden are not immune. The goal of the policy is not to levy discipline,
but rather to aid in the discovery and prevention of possible drug-related problems.
Drugs the school will be testing for will be marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines,
meth, and opiates. Alcohol can also be tested on a reasonable suspicion
basis. The school district will pay for all random screenings.
Consequences for a positive test will be suspension from participation in all
extracurricular activities and/or parking on school property for a period of
28 calendar days from when the test results are determined. In order for
the student to be reinstated to activities or parking, they must take another
drug test that will be at the expense of the student and parent or guardian. The
test results must be negative and the lab testing facility must be pre-approved
by the school district. During the interim, the student will attend practice
session, continue to attend team functions and sit with fellow participants during
the activities, but may not participate.
The 28-day suspension can be reduced to 14 days if the student and a parent or
guardian will participate in substance abuse education as recommended by a mental
health professional certified in substance abuse treatment.
After a student tests positive once, they will be subject to non-random testing
at the request of the administration for the remainder of the student’s
participation in extracurricular activities and/or parking on school property
for the current school year.
A second positive test during the 365 calendar days immediately following the
first positive test will result in the student being ineligible to participate or
park on school property for an additional 365 calendar days. The consequence
can be reduced to 182 days if the student will undergo a full substance abuse
assessment and follow through with treatment as recommended by the certified
substance abuse treatment provider.
If the student tests positive a third time, a permanent loss of extracurricular
eligibilities and/or parking privileges during their middle or high school career
will be assessed. This consequence can be reduced to 365 calendar days
if the student will complete a residential substance abuse treatment program
and follow through with all prescribed treatment upon release from the facility.
Spies lauded the board on their decision, “I’m very pleased with
the board’s decision to adopt this policy. By doing so, they have
acknowledged that our students need help in saying no to drugs and they have
taken the steps to help them be successful.
“I’m sure this first year will have kinks that we’ll have to
work through, but I’m confident that it’s the right decision for
our students in the long run. It’s not a cure-all to our drug problem,
but if the possibility of being tested will stop one student from doing drugs,
then in my opinion, it’s worth it.
“I want to thank the drug testing policy committee that was comprised with
staff, parents and students for all their hard work developing the policy and
I also want to thank our district administration and our board for having the
courage to adopt this policy.”
By Steve Sullins
Editor
Members of the
Holden City Council held preliminary discussions on the possibility
of passing a city ordinance to require motorists to either use credit/debit
’s service stations.
The talks, held at their regular meeting last Tuesday night, were
prompted by a request from Fastop owner Adrian Phelps to consider
the possibility of an ordinance, as his drive-off losses have been
increasing. He stated that he had lost approximately $1,000
in the first six months of the year.
According to Mayor Mike Wakeman, city ordinances requiring prepayment
or credit/debit card usage is definitely the wave of the future
as Kansas City and other municipalities around the Holden-area
have already gone to that method.
Major Rick Martin of the Holden Police Department also stated that
manhours for law enforcement officers dealing with the drive-off
problem has been increasing. “The problem is that if
we don’t have a license number or at least a description
of the car, we have nothing to go on. Also, with so many
of the cities going to pre-pay, people who are going to do this
will find Holden ‘easy-pickins’”
Opposition to the ordinance was voiced by council members Christi
Stowe and Brenda Stumpff. Stowe stated that if the service
stations wanted to get together and agree to require prepayment
or credit card usage that was fine, but she didn’t see any
need to make it a law.
Stumpff stated, “As a business owner, you win some and you
lose some, if you’re in the business of convenience stores.”
The mayor reminded council members that it was still in the discussion
stages, but he asked Martin “to come up with some cost estimates” on
what the police department is having to pay for the problem. He
also stated he would talk to the other service station owners about
their feelings on the matter.
In another matter before the city leaders, the council agreed to
obtain bids for repairing the damaged sidewalk and drainage system
at the corner of Fourth and Market Streets. Mayor Wakeman
reported he had talked with the owner of the adjacent business
who initially was willing to help pay for the repairs, but the
next day recanted his willingness saying he wasn’t responsible
as the damage was caused by a drainage issue.
Since the mayor had turned the issue over to councilman Butch Shore
to research, Shore reported to the council, “I don’t
expect him to pay for the water issue, but I think he could help
with the concrete for the sidewalk repair.”
Wakeman stated he would like to see the sidewalk repaired by fair
time so they would get estimates for drainage and concrete costs
in the near future.
In other council business, after a brief period of discussion,
it was agreed to sell one of the police department’s patrol
car, asking a minimum bid of $4,500 which includes equipment. The
city will also advertise for sale the old animal control truck,
which was given to the city several years ago.
In resolutions and ordinances passed at the meeting, the city put
the finishing touches on the hiring of local attorney Michael Branson
as the city’s new prosecutor. Also, resolutions were
passed allowing the city to enter into a lease-purchase agreement
with Baystone Financial to obtain two patrol cars and a dump truck. The
used patrol cars have a price tag of $27,000 for a three-year lease,
while the dump truck will cost approximately $19,000.
The council also authorized the city’s police department
to apply for a $10,000 90/10 split grant for purchase of software
and other items to benefit the PD. If awarded, the city would have
to pay a maximum of $1,000. Shore told the council that one
of the officer's wives would write the grant for the city without
cost.
In a final item, the council discussed sending one of the police
officers to a grant writing workshop in September at a cost of
$395 plus room. Since the request involved a personnel matter,
the subject was tabled to be discussed in closed executive session.
By Steve Sullins
Editor
|
|
Kingsville
R-I School District approved property tax rates at a tax hearing
held at their regular scheduled board meeting August 9.
The tax rates are set to produce the revenues which the budget for the fiscal
year beginning July 1, 2006 shows to be required from the property tax. The
rates approved were $3.449 for the general fund; $.9433 for the debt service
fund; for a total of $4.39.
In new business, Coleman reported that attendance is up to 281 students
compared with 269 for last year in grades kindergarten through 12. Class
sizes are kindergarten, 24; first grade, 19; second grade, 24; third grade, 17;
fourth grade, 19; fifth grade, 18; sixth grade, 19; seventh grade, 30; eighth
grade, 24; freshmen, 34; sophomores, 20; juniors, 17; and seniors, 16.
In old business, Superintendent Kevin Coleman discussed policy updates with the
board. At the last meeting, the board requested access to copies of these
policies and each had the opportunity to review them. “Most of the
updates are mandatory,” according to Coleman. The board approved
all the mandatory updates.
In other old business, the board discussed the budget, which Coleman had provided
copies of for them to review. Board member Ed Barnett suggested the board
hold a special meeting during which the budget could be explained in detail and
by line item. The board was in agreement with Barnett and Coleman said
he would canvass the group to find a suitable time for everyone to attend such
a meeting.
In facilities business, Coleman reported on the water leak the district has been
trying to locate and fix. “We called in Tony Lerda and a contractor
to do some digging and replace the faulty pipes. They replaced them with
new flex pipe. In other areas of the facility, mechanical plumbers had
to be called in to run new pipes above ground and these should be completed by
Friday. We are also looking into replacing some stools that currently have
auto-flushers on them,” said Coleman.
In other maintenance business, Coleman reported there were air-conditioning problems
in the multipurpose building. “Some insulation had come loose and
we were only getting about one-third of the air flow needed to cool the building. We
had that repaired and it’s working fine now. We need to be sure we
change the filters and keep the units clean,” said Coleman.
In new business, the board discussed offering a before and after school care
program. After much discussion on the subject, it was tabled until a later
date.
Board members asked Coleman about the bus routes for this year and he stated
the routes are approximately the same as last year. He also confirmed that
all bus drivers must do a pre-trip check on their busses each morning before
leaving on their route. “There is a meeting on August 15 with the
bus drivers to go over all rules and regulations with them,” Coleman added. He
also told the board the new bus should be delivered by August 21.
In other old business, Coleman shared with the board that he had checked on lunch
prices with several different schools at the board’s request. “Kingsville’s
lunch prices are lower than Lone Jack, Crest Ridge and Holden. We’ll
see how we do this year and may look at having to raise prices for next year,” said
Coleman.
In high school reports, principal Lorna Warren reported seventh and ninth grade
orientation was held that night with 74 percent of seventh graders, and 70 percent
of ninth graders attending.
In other new business, Coleman suggested the board look at the current mission
statement and see if they think it should be updated or changed. The board
discussed the mission statement briefly and tabled the issue until a further
meeting.
The regular meeting of the Kingsville School Board was closed and the board went
into executive session. The regular meeting will reopen on September 14.
By Dana Neubert
News Staff
A 44-year-old Holden
man lost his life Saturday morning as the pickup truck he was driving
was struck by an AMTRAK passenger train
at the railroad crossing on Southwest 871 Road near Holden.
According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol traffic crash report, Jeffrey
Dean Hammond was traveling southbound on 871 Road at 8:55 Saturday morning when
he failed to yield at the railroad crossing. The eastbound train hit his
1992 Dodge Ram pickup and knocked it approximately 200 feet north and east of
the crossing.
Hammond was pronounced dead at the scene by C.L. Holdren, acting Johnson County
Coroner. His body was transported to Holdren and Sweeney-Phillips Funeral
Home in Warrensburg.
Hammond, a farmer, is survived by his parents, Lloyd Hammond and his wife, Ruth,
of Holden; and Nancy Dillon and husband, Earl, of Warrensburg. The 1980
graduate of Holden High School is the grandson of Millie Manford of Holden.
His funeral service was held Tuesday, August 15, at Ben Cast & Son-Wood
Funeral Home with interment at Blackwater Cemetery. Memorial contributions
are suggested to a special education scholarship fund in memory of Jeff.
By Steve Sullins
Editor
|