District rescinds district drug policy
MINSTER — Board members rescinded a recently-implemented drug policy by a 3-2 vote on Monday night.
The board of education passed the policy at the April school board meeting, but the policy was met with resistance by community members and parents. A forum that was attended by school officials, 56 parents and 28 students was held on May 19 to further discuss the policy.
“The meeting was a good meeting with both supporters of the policy and non-supporters present. Those in attendance did not agree to points made on either side and there was no ask for an agreement,” said Superintendent Brenda Boeke. “One of the main takeaways for me was that parents want to work with the board to help solve the problem.”
In her report, Boeke mentioned recent initiatives by Gov. Mike DeWine to implement more safety in schools in light of recent tragedies, and feels it’s time to reevaluate the district’s entire safety policy.
She mentioned conducting a vulnerability assessment of the campus and establishing safety and security committees that review those assessments.
“We could have that same committee then evaluate the policy that we’ve adopted and have parents included in that and have that information all shared. That also would fall in line with the district leadership team, who two weeks ago, had as one of their goals to re-evaluate all the safety protocols that we have in place including ALICE Training and everything that involves safety,” said Boeke. “I think it’s time maybe we look at what we have in place, just take a step back and evaluate the whole process.”
School board president Trina Nixon said that more perspectives are needed.
“I hate for it to be a reason, but with what happened in Texas with the school and the governor’s new thing on safety, that it is a reasonable plan to just take a step back, suspend any kind of drug policy until we’ve got a parent committee and more involvement to decide if that’s what we’re going to move forward with,” said Nixon.
Incoming superintendent Josh Meyer was present Monday night and listed other areas that should be addressed in addition to drug testing including: counseling services, campus safety and PBIS initiatives and threat assessments.
Board member Ted Oldiges made a motion to rescind the drug policy.
Before the vote, board member Nick Rentz shared his thoughts.
“You guys can disagree, but I don’t know if it’s good policy to take something and just kind of stuff it underneath the rug. Either we have a policy or we don’t have a policy,” he said.
He said more data was needed and was in favor of rescinding it.
The policy says that students will not be denied any athletic or extracurricular participation, and the positive test results will only be known by the student, parents and principal. If the family refuses this option, the student will be immediately denied participation in athletics and extracurriculars for one calendar year.
A second positive test will result in referral to and completion of a drug assistance program at the family’s expense; a resetting schedule will be set (similar to the first positive test) and denial of the privilege to participate in no less that 50% of the schedule athletic contests. Additionally, the student would be denied the privilege to participate in extracurriculars for six calendar months.
A third positive test would result in a drug assistance program, a retesting schedule and denial of extracurriculars for one calendar year.
Also Monday, board members discussed the school’s handbook policy revisions the board was set to approve.
Regarding the school’s tardiness policy, Oldiges questioned why a sixth tardy offense resulted in a three-day stay at alternative school in Wapakoneta.
“A kid can be late for six minutes and we’re going to kick them out of school for three days because they were late six minutes?” Oldiges asked. “A student we’re going to pay for them to be shipped over there and we’re going to pay them to stay there. We cannot do this in-house somehow?”
The policy that was set up says that a third tardy offense results in a detention; a fourth offense leads to one week of school detention and a fifth results in a threehour detention.
Grades 7-12 Principal Austin Kaylor replied and said no student has ever had a sixth offense and the district has never staffed an in-school suspension.
“OK, so they’re not suspended. They were late for say, six minutes six different times — and now we’re taking them out of us teaching them over to there and we’re kicking them out for three days,” said Oldiges.
“To me, I just think that’s kind of futile and not good for us to get rid of our own student and put them over there for three days. And we’re paying for it and we’re paying for the busing, when we should be able to take care of those things in-house.”
“Most districts at that point are going to have something more than a detention or a lunch detention,” replied Kaylor.
“I get pretty creative at steps four and five.”
Oldiges said that he doesn’t care about “most districts.”
“I care about our district. In our district, I don’t think we should do that. We shouldn’t kick somebody out for being six minutes late,” he said. “To me, that is extreme and should be handled within our own house here to try to remediate something like that.”
Boeke clarified that Minster assigns the students to alternative school to avoid suspension so it doesn’t go on their educational record.
“That’s the difference between an in-school suspension and an alternative school stay. Which is something we want to be cautious of on the kids so they don’t have a suspension,” she said.
Treasurer Laura Klosterman said that it costs $75 per day to send students to the alternative school.
After discussion, the sixth offense was taken out of the handbook. Kaylor also removed the headband listing from the student dress code as a violation.
In other business:
• Treasurer Laura Klosterman shared information regarding catastrophic aid the district receives for special education costs that exceed certain thresholds. The district received$17,587.52 for FY2021 which is 47% of the actual cost. Increased costs equate to an increased reimbursement. Klosterman also shared information regarding the approval of the risk insurance on the agenda. There has been a significant change to the cybersecurity policy and the cost of its coverage over last year has increased.
• The board accepted a $6022.41 donation, proceeds from the Oktoberfest Booth, from the Minster Academic Boosters for the teacher awarded grants. They also accepted $9,500, proceeds from the cookie dough sales, from the Minster Academic Boosters to be used for flexible seating in the media center, MakerSpace and literacy hands-on materials at the elementary school and also for a projection screen at the high school.
• The board approved the following personnel: the resignation of Michelle Link; the hiring on one-year contracts Cindy Nelson, Jamie Peining, Amanda Sudhoff, Greg Zumberger; extended days of Jen Beair, Nick Baird, Paul Winglewich, Leah Ketner, Melissa Utrup and Greg Zumberger. The board also approved summer school teachers Kim Schwieterman and Darren Turner. Turner was also hired as extended school year teacher. They approved a cell phone stipend for the facility manager and accepted the resignation of cook’s helper Jill Prenger. They approved an instructional aide contract for Cindy Nelson and two-year contracts for Ryan Gillot and Annette Moran. They also approved Vickie Sherer as a substitute custodian. The following groundskeepers were approved: Gary Borges, Steve Bruns, Dennis Dahlinghaus, Robert Poeppelman, Thomas Roetgerman and Tim Sekas. Forty-eight supplemental contracts were approved for coaches and advisors.