Board considers changes to student drug survey BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - The issue of random drug and alcohol testing and surveying drug abuse in the district was once again a hot topic during the Board of Education's Sept. 19 meeting. The board received a confidential memo containing the results of the survey that was approved Oct. 23 last year, and, according to many, the results were not conclusive. Though there was not a public forum at the workshop meeting, members of the board as well as Superintendent of Schools Karen Bilbao, all had opinions on the survey's results. "The number of students that we polled was just too small," board member Rose Stallmeyer said. "It was just not enough to a draw a conclusion." The alcohol and drug survey was conducted among students who volunteered to take it confidentially. From there, the names and numbers were put into a pool, where 10 percent of respondents were chosen to give a urine sample to the nurse. One problem that board members had was that not enough students were chosen to partake in the survey. Bilbao said that in the future, an additional 1 percent would be included in the final pool. Board member Sherry Gevarter had another idea. "I understand the survey," Gevarter said. "But I would like some sort of focus group to evaluate the information." Gevarter wanted to see the students' reactions to many of the questions that were being asked. "Seems to me that you want to ask the kids the questions," board President Dawn Diorio said, a comment to which Gevarter quickly agreed. Another proposed addition to the survey would be to administer the tests over a two-year period, although some disagreed with the idea. "Waiting two years is just too long," board member Joan Minnues said. "My main objection with this is that we weren't clear with what we were reading." Bilbao said that the whole purpose of the tests was to curtail the use of drugs and alcohol by students. "These kids may try to outsmart the survey," Bilbao said. "These surveys have been designed to [evaluate] these adolescents."