East Bernard ISD OKs city DARE funding
By BARRY HALVORSON news@leader-news.com

The vote was unanimous as the East Bernard ISD board of trustees approved accepting a contribution from the city to provide the full D.A.R.E. program to the district's students.

The board voted during a special called meeting Oct. 22.

District Superintendent Wayne Calhoun said Tuesday morning he had already been in contact with the Wharton County Sheriff's Department, which will provide the Drug Resistance Education Program in the classroom, about getting things started.

"I talked to Chief Deputy Bill Copeland and he said from this point on we should consider ourselves part of the program," Calhoun said. "He said that they already have officers working on setting up the program and should get us back into it very quickly."

Based on his conversation, Calhoun said Copeland told him it would not be necessary to appear before the Wharton County Commissioners Court to have the program reinstated.

"When we first discussed it, I thought we might have to get it on a commissioners agenda so we called the special meeting because we didn't want to lose anymore time," Calhoun said.

Copeland confirmed his conversation with the school district and said the department could handle it through budget amendments.

The chief deputy added the additional person needed for the D.A.R.E. program was already trained and in place.

"We'll just move Bill Holt from deputy back to being a D.A.R.E. officer," Copeland said. "It will just be a matter of getting the money shifted from the sheriff's department budget to the D.A.R.E. budget."

Earlier this year, the county opted to drop East Bernard from the D.A.R.E. program because the school system was no longer a full participant in the program.

When originally organized, the sheriff's office along with the Louise, Boling and East Bernard districts agreed to pay an equal part of the program's costs.

In recent years, the East Bernard ISD had cut back on the program and reduced it's contribution to half of the original agreed upon percentage.

After the district was dropped from the program, Precinct 2 County Commissioner Chris King approached the East Bernard City Council about funding the remaining portion of the cost to restore the program.

The council voted to make a one-time contribution to the school district at its Oct. 15 meeting.