POTTSTOWN PA – The controlled substance disciplinary policy applied to Pottsgrove School District students should remain unchanged, a committee of the Board of School Directors unanimously agreed Tuesday (Oct. 25, 2011), despite a call made earlier this month by a local political candidate who contended it was “a mistake” that needed to be modified.
Pottsgrove High School
“I personally don’t see the need for a change,” board member and Policy Committee Chairman April Kontostathis said following the decision. “Students who are making the choice” to abuse drugs and alcohol while on school property or at district events “need to be dealt with,” she said.
The committee’s recommendation will be formally heard by the full board during its Nov. 8 (Tuesday) meeting.
The policy review was prompted by the appearance of former Lower Pottsgrove (PA) Township Commissioner Stephen Klotz at the school board’s Oct. 11 meeting. Klotz, who is a November election candidate to regain a commission seat, asked for directors’ intervention on behalf of a student who had been disciplined for alleged intoxication while attending a high school football game.
“We’re going to talk about the policy in general. We’re not going to discuss any particular student, and I don’t believe we’re going to recommend a change in the discipline of any specific student,” Kontostathis said as she broached the subject. The committee had budgeted an hour for the review, expecting audience participation. However, a news reporter was the only member of the public in attendance, and the discussion lasted less than 15 minutes.
The policy was last revised during 2008, and has been “working well for us since,” district Assistant Administrator Shellie Feola said.
Its application, according to high school Interim Principal Yolanda Williams, includes “a series of interventions” involving both students and teachers. If substance abuse ultimately is suspected, the appropriate police department is called to investigate. “We’d rather be safe than sorry, and we’ve had no complaints from parents,” Williams added.
Williams also praised the district Twilight Program, its year-old night school taught by members of the teaching staff, that serves from 1-12 students in any given month. “It removes students from the social environment but it gives them real support,” she said.
Two students who are returning from Twilight to regular classes next month have pointedly requested they be assigned to teachers with whom they bonded during discipline. “When our students come back, they’re not lost,” Williams said. “We’re designing individual approaches so they have something to come back to.”
Director David Faulkner asked about escalating discipline under the policy for repeat offenders. Williams smiled in response. “The good thing about that,” she noted, “is that it hasn’t happened.”
The committee also discussed two other policies, including one on computer network security within district buildings.
Related:
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Oct. 25 meeting):
Standing up for an individual responsbility to adhere to regulations and rules is the right move.
Bravo!