DRUG TESTS OK'D IN NIXA SCHOOLS

Board Also Approves Letters To Parents Of Students Who Miss 10 Days Or More.

Drug testing and sending letters to parents of students with too many
absences - both sources of controversy in other area school districts -
were OK'd at Tuesday night's Nixa school board meeting. Random drug testing
of students in extracurricular activities will start this year, and letters
start to go out to parents of students who miss more than 10 days of school.

In a district survey this spring on the question of drug testing, 90
percent of more than 100 district patrons said they would favor such a policy.

Nixa Activities Director Wayne Haynes said he's had positive feedback on
the proposal, even though it would apply to up to 600 students. A 28-day
suspension from activities ranging from band to basketball could be the
result for first-time offenders who test positive for drugs.

"If you talk to kids, they're all for it," said Haynes, adding that most
students in extracurricular activities want to represent the school in a
"positive way."

"Peer pressure is so great, and this will give the students another
opportunity to say no."

He said tests would take place three to five times in fall, winter and spring.

Superintendent Stephen Kleinsmith called drug testing a weapon in the war
against drugs and admitted that drug and alcohol use is a problem among
some Nixa students.

"Absolutely," he said. "But I truly believe that there is not a community
that can say it is exempt from drugs and alcohol."

Nixa isn't the only Ozarks district to see the need for such a policy.

In July, Marshfield approved a policy to test students involved in
school-sponsored activities. Last year in Carl Junction, a 5-year-old
policy on testing athletes was broadened to include junior high and high
school students in extracurricular activities.

Nor is Nixa the only district to promote an attendance policy that seeks to
sharpen the teeth of the state's compulsory attendance law.

Count Me In, a project of the Greene County prosecutor's office and
Springfield Public Schools, has a goal of raising the district's attendance
rate from 93 percent to between 95 and 97 percent.

Parents of about 4,000 students who missed 19 or more school days last year
got letters asking them to attend meetings and sign contracts committing
their children to an attendance rate of at least 95 percent.

In a 176-day school year, that means students can't miss more than nine days.

In Nixa, parents would be mailed letters and school attendance contracts
after 10 days of absence during the 174-day year.

The district had a 94 percent attendance rate last year, but Kleinsmith
said that's not good enough.

"The enemy of the best is often the good," he said, quoting motivational
author and speaker Stephen Covey. "We don't want to be good enough."

Losing state aid of $30 to $35 a day per student is one reason to improve
attendance, Kleinsmith said, but increasing student achievement is more
important.