OUSD board hears drug-use survey
by Bret Bradigan

Drugs dominated the talk at Ojai Unified School District's Dec. 10 board meeting, as Terry Mitchell from the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation presented results from the Healthy Kids Survey about drug, alcohol and tobacco use among district students.
The anonymous survey, taken in 2000 and 2002, followed seventh-, ninth- and 11th-graders, and showed striking declines in tobacco use, while alcohol use was both up and down depending on grade levels. Marijuana climbed slightly. Use of hard-core drugs such as heroin, cocaine and LSD showed slight declines generally.
However, Mitchell pointed out that in most categories - whether it was one-time, periodic or regular use - Ojai students exceeded state averages.
Samples ranged from 33 percent to 77 percent, but Mitchell said, "There was a high enough response rate that we can be confident in our data."
One ominous trend among seventh-graders, where, Mitchell said, "All high-risk categories see increases ... (Those students) are more at risk right now than seventh-graders two years ago."
Board member Bob Unruhe attributed the decline in smoking to the widely seen anti-tobacco public service announcements. "It seems to be making a dent, the kids see it no longer makes sense to do it."
Mitchell said that this momentum needs to be sustained, and carried over to other substances. "This trend with cigarettes, we also really want to continue that."
Superintendent Van Riley gave the board an update on the district's newly formed Drug and Alcohol Task Force. "This issue has really come to the forefront recently," causing the district to contemplate courses of action. The loss of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education last year "left a big void," Riley said. "We're scrambling around for (a way to reach) students left out in the cold."
The heightened awareness has positive effects, he said. "It's good that people are now aware of this issue," pointing out the full house that attended the Dec. 2 Nordhoff Parent Association meeting.
Among the ideas brought out at that meeting and through the task force are voluntary drug testing, where parents request that their children be tested and the results released only to the parents; heightened supervision around the school grounds and at school events; and stricter policies for possession of drugs.
At present, Riley said students were suspended for three to five days for possession of marijuana. "Tougher policies (are being developed)" he said. "Students could be considered for expulsion. Hopefully, they wouldn't then be so brazen with drugs on campus.
"There's a lot of ideas out there," he said. "We are going to make the campus safer than they are now."
Riley did caution that the new plans and procedures had to be carefully thought. For instance, it would do little good to bring in volunteer parents for patrols if they didn't have the training to deal with confrontations.
After-school activities were also discussed. "That's a huge issue," he said. "We need to keep our youth in structured, fun activities."
Student representative Lauren Wyatt said that the drug issue has dominated conversations lately among Nordhoff students. "Everyone is talking about it, everyone is worried about it."
Bill Myly, representing Ventura County's ??????? Commission, said that having a backup plan was critical to the success of any anti-drug endeavor. "People don't have resources they know about, or feel good about, to go to," he said. He also suggested changing the "Drug-Free School" signs at the schools to read, "Our goal is a drug-free school." He said, "That chances the whole message, it tells people there is a process in the works to do better."
Salary negotiations with California State Employees Association, representing the district's 126 employees who are not teachers or administrators, concluded with board's unanimous approval and thanks for their sacrifices. Due to the district's declining enrollment and subsequent budget crisis, the classified staff delayed their 1.8 percent pay raise until January, in effect reducing the raise to .81 percent and the cost to the district to $31,266.
Board member Rikki Horne said, "That shows tremendous collegiality, that they gave up a piece of the pie." Newest board member Pauline Mercado also noted their sacrifice. "We need to recognize the cooperativeness of the CSEA. They really made a good-faith effort."
That sunny note of conclusion was followed by the ominous clouds of budget gloom gathering over Sacramento, where the governor and legislature are seeking to slash $21 billion from the state budget. Van Riley said preliminary reports coming in Friday indicated the district could be hit as hard as $1 million or more, or about $350 per student of the about $5,000 per student the district receives in average daily attendance money. As the process progressed, however, the figure dropped to about $100 per student, or about $400,000 of the district's $25 million annual budget.
"It looks like we can get through this year without layoffs," Riley said, although the district has 15 vacant positions at present. "We're looking hard at every single one of them."
Danielle Pusatere, the district's budget officer, gave an update on district fund balances and revisions as part of a mid-year review, during which she said that the lottery funds, contrary to the perception of some, represent only about 2 percent of the district's budget, or about $475,000 per year.
The board looked at an expanded schedule of 19 meetings next year, but voted to hold to a typical schedule of 16 meetings. Unruhe had requested the extra meetings to deal with special subjects, such as testing or substance abuse, but board member Kathi Smith said that board members "are free to add meetings when any one of us feels it is necessary."
The meeting concluded with approval of governing board policies and the superintendent's report. It began with the swearing in of re-elected incumbents Kathi Smith and Rikki Horne and for the first term of Mercado. As board tradition, Tim Peddicord shifted seats to the board chairman's spot which was relinquished by Smith.

© 2002 The Ojai Valley News

Back to the news