BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

Students in grades nine through 12 who participate in athletics and other extracurricular activities, or who park their cars at school, may soon be subject to random drug testing in New Jersey schools.

According to S-500, a bill signed into law on Aug. 29 by acting Gov. Richard Codey which took effect immediately, “many school districts in the state have a growing problem of drug abuse among their students.”

Following the lead of federal and state courts, the bill states, the Legislature has decided “it may be appropriate for school districts to combat this problem through the random drug testing of students participating in extracurricular activities including interscholastic athletics, and students who possess school parking permits.”

Under the law, local school boards will be responsible for holding public hearings before adopting a drug testing policy.

Students who test positive for drug use or who refuse to consent to testing, according to the law, will be suspended or prohibited from participating in extracurricular activities, or will have their parking permits revoked.

Random drug testing, the law states, will help deter drug use and provide a means for the early detection of students with drug problems “so that counseling and rehabilitative treatment may be offered.”

The testing would be for the use of controlled dangerous substances as well as anabolic steroids.

Testing will be conducted by the school physician, school nurse, laboratory or health care facility designated by the local board of education, and the cost of the testing will be paid for by the board.

State Sen. Joseph Palaia (R-Monmouth), who co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Nicholas J. Sacco (D-Bergen and Hudson), said in an interview that because of his and Sacco’s experiences as school administrators, they understand the need for parental involvement when implementing such a policy.

“The key to the whole thing is that each board of education has to hold public hearings,” said Palaia, a former teacher and principal. “We want the public to know what we are doing.”

Palaia said the legislation is important for several reasons, including making the playing field a safer place.

“A lot of these young people take drugs when they are out in the field competing,” he said, “and that creates a dangerous situation for the other students who are not taking the drugs. It puts the others at a great disadvantage.”

In the original version of the bill, only student-athletes were targeted for the

graders who would have been assigned to attend Colts Neck in September 2006 will instead attend Howell High School.

District officials said Howell will have 174 additional students.

Wasser noted that every year there are parents who enroll their children in an FRHSD building and in a private school, as well as people who do not inform the district when they move. Some students do not arrive in September and administrators have to wait several weeks to remove them from the rolls.

“Last year there were 11,800 students [enrolled] in September,” the superintendent said. “Two weeks later after all the drops, we wound up with 11,400. So 400 students were inflated.”

District officials said that as of Sept. 12 the number of students at each school was as follows:

• Colts Neck, 1,800 students (capacity is between 1,700 and 1,800).

• Freehold, 1,434 students (capacity is between 1,300 and 1,400).

• Freehold Township, 2,217 students (capacity is between 2,300 and 2,400).

• Howell, 2,019 students (capacity is between 2,200 and 2,300).

• Manalapan, 2,008 students (capacity is between 2,300 and 2,400).

• Marlboro, 2,262 (capacity is between 2,400 and 2,500).

Those figures show a total of 11,740 students in the FRHSD.

Wasser said there will be a reduction in those numbers in about two weeks.

“That happens every year,” he said.

During the meeting, Stan Slachetka, a demographer with T&M Associates, Middletown, reviewed the information.

“The 2005-06 enrollments are very close to those projected in the revised demographic study, with 11,748 students district-wide,” Slachetka said. “Past predictions indicated about 11,700 students.”

There is a population trend that shows a flattening out of enrollment, Slachetka said.

He said some local rezoning initiatives have resulted in a slowing of develoments producing school-age children in the FRHSD and “with that decline, as you approach functional capacity, that trend toward capacity is becoming flatter and flatter and lower and lower,” said the demographer.

Slachetka said that information does not take the district out of the woods as far as being concerned, but he noted there may be more time to make plans for the future regarding additional needs.

Enrollment projections for 2006-07 indicate about 11,800 students; for 2007-08, about 12,000 students; and for 2008-09, about 12,100 students.

Slachetka said there may be a need for some minor tweaking over the next few years, but there should be no major changes in attendance areas.

In other board business, Kenneth Grenci, an engineer with the firm of Shine, Spinelli and Perantoni, gave an abridged version of a 2005-10 long-range facilitates report. A full version is expected to be given to the state at a future date.

The report to the state is expected to include a room-by-room inventory of everything in the FRHSD buildings to demographics and related items.

Five-year plan projects are expected to include classroom upgrades, roofing, door and window replacements, improvements to building security and fire alarm equipment, and auditorium refurbishing. No specific buildings were mentioned.

Turning his attention to transportation issues, Wasser said transportation concerns are being ironed out. He said the district does not provide door-to-door service and sometimes students have to walk a short distance to their bus stop.

Wasser said the district was very fortunate in Manalapan where road work was completed on Church Lane and at the intersection of Route 522 and Tennent Road just before school started.

“Obviously the big concern today is the cost of efficient transportation. It’s becoming more and more difficult,” he said, adding that with the increase in gas prices the district may be forced to decrease the number of, or eliminate, second activity bus runs. Additionally, administrators may be looking at the cost for trips and may have to combine classes or groups in order to decrease those costs, according to the superintendent.