School board rejects grant

By DREW STAMBAUGH

Enterprise News Editor

The Swanton School Board voted unanimously last week to not accept a grant from the United States Department of Education. The alcohol reduction grant would have distributed about $170,000 per year for three years.

A prepared statement by the board said, "After considering this grant in depth for several months, it was decided by board members that the allocation of funds for the grant were much too heavy in the administrative areas of salaries, office and computer equipment and travel."

The board said earlier that the cost of supplies, which would be used by students, for one year of the grant, was just $4,700. While the cost of travel was around $14,000 and contractual costs amounted to nearly $86,000.

Neil Toeppe, President of the Swanton Area Community Coalition (SACC), which applied for the grant, spoke in favor of the grant in an effort to convince board members to approve it.

He said that over the past four years, the coalition and school district have had a good relationship.

"Our efforts have been to create awareness of the very serious problem of youth alcohol use and other illegal or inapprorpriate substance use and abuse," Toeppe said. "And our partnership with the school district has shown significant reduction in youth alcohol, tobacco and marijuana consumption."

He also said that the group has tried to alleviate any concerns of school board members.

"We've tried to respond in a positive way to all of the concerns (school officials) had, and didn't negotiate with them, but simply said we would agree to whatever changes they would want to make."

Mona Dyke was the only board member to speak on the issue at the meeting.

"I want parents and students alike to be assured that we are aware of the problems. We certainly are not diminishing in any way the impact that alcohol and other drugs can have on people's lives," said Dyke. "We sure know that it's a problem in Swanton as it is in many places and we will continue to support programs and things for the kids to do."

The board also said in their statement that they have had less than positive experiences in playing the role of fiscal manager for outside groups in the past

"Over half of the money was slated to go to the SACC to carry out the terms of the grant," the statement read. "An additional $30,000 per year was designated to go toward the evaluation of the grant by yet another outside organization."

Random testing

The board also voted last week to not implement random drug testing of athletes as they had previously planned.

With money running out, board members did not think doing testing for just one year or a partial year would be a good idea.

"I think we're in agreement that to start this process for one year with a definite end period is not going to work for us," said Jeff Michael, school board vice-president.

There will be no more money coming into the school district from the grant, according to district treasurer Cheryl Swisher. The grant ended June 30, 2008, but she had applied for a 12-month no cost extension to use the remaining funds through June 30, 2009.

The Evergreen School District may be able to use those funds to continue the testing they started last year. There is approximately $48,000 remaining.

The Swanton School Board unanimously voted to rescind the policies relating to the random drug testing. They also made a motion to delete the mention of random drug testing from the student handbook.

Other business

* The board approved changing student ticket prices for junior high athletic events from $1 to $2.

* The board approved certificated contracts for new teachers Brooks Jordan, Mark Rairigh, Nate Keller, Justin Reckner, Matt Smith and Tiffany Hood. Smith will also be Swanton's boys varsity basketball coach this season.