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The Weimar ISD board of trustees motioned to table an agenda item that would have seen a random drug testing program brought back to Weimar ISD campuses.
According to Weimar ISD Superintendent Chase Seelke, the program was last approved by the board back in 2017, seven years before he arrived. He says from what he was told, COVID was the main reason why the program suddenly disappeared.
“It had not been active recently,” said Seelke. “The last time the board approved it was in 2017. I have only been here since April so from what I have been told, is when COVID hit, they kind of just stopped doing it.”
Seelke says the program was sought to be reimplemented as a preventative measure to keep students away from ever being interested in engaging.
“It is not due to anything in particular,” said Seelke. “The drug policy is meant to be a preventative thing. Non punitive in nature and try to give kids an out. Give the kids a reason not to do things, not to try things, it is not necessarily to catch anyone. But we have not acted on it and tabled it for the time being.”
Student meal prices were one of several action items that were not tabled, as board members acted to decide on food costs for the 2024-2025 school year. Here are the following prices for regular and reduced meal plans.
Breakfast – Reduced: Free, Regular: $1 Lunch – Reduced: $0.40, Regular: PreK through 3rd grade: $2.25, 4th through 8th grade: $2.50, 9th through 12th grade: $2.75.
Seelke highlighted how the district did not have to make any changes to the student prices due to Weimar’s healthy food service fund balance. He did note however that the prices for adult meals both increased by 10 cents.
“We did not go up at all on our student process because we did not feel a need to,” said Seelke. “We kept the student pricess the same, and we approved a 10-cent increase for adults for both breakfast and lunch.”
A tax rate compression was also discussed by board members for a decrease of .002 cents, suggesting changing the MNO tax rate from last school years $0.6692 cents take this school years $0.6669 cents.
Seelke says with the state’s control over school districts overpowering local control, the tax rates are a quick discussion as the state decides the rates. He says it is tough dealing with what he knows other schools across Colorado county and the state are dealing with as well.
“You know there is not really any local control over that anymore. The state tells you what your tax rate is now,” said Seelke. “It is tough. We are dealing with the same stuff other schools across Colorado County are dealing with. The property finance works, it is not those numbers that went up and then the amount that you are going to get from the state, your local share, goes up, but your state share goes down. So, all at the same time, your costs are rising just like with everybody. It is not just specific to schools.”
The tax rate will not be approved until their next special meeting, a hearing on Thursday, Aug. 29.
