This gives choices to students. It gives opportunity to feel empowered, ownership and a sense of identity of who they are and to want to be successful. There is no “one size fits all.”

There are not enough Head Start programs in our community. It creates a waiting list for families to enroll their child into the program. This creates a downward spiral for those children to not be successful when they enter into kindergarten.

It truly takes the community to be involved. I strongly believe by creating a six-year plan this would accomplish this yearly. This would cause everyone to be involved to improve student achievement.

The policy needs to be reviewed by a subcommittee of board members and the executive directors from the elementary, middle and high schools to look at line-for-line to strengthen the wording so that our students and parents are aware of the consequences for this type of behavior. If need be, the school attorney should be involved in this process to stay within our boundaries as a school district. This should be brought to the board for review and public testimony as well.

There is already a community involvement on this issue, and they brought forth good reasoning as to having drug tests for all athletes. I feel this is good with a strong policy in place.