Adult education is on school agenda tonight
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Adult education will be one of the topics on tap when the Port Aransas Independent School District Board of Trustees meets tonight - Thursday, Feb. 14.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the administration building on Station Street.

PAISD superintendent Billy Wiggins said trustees will discuss what sort of role the school district should play in the area of adult education. PAISD currently has no adult-education program, but that could change, Wiggins said. Just what might happen is an open question, he said.

The question has come up because Port Aransas' only program where adults can study to obtain their GEDs (General Education Development) could use some help. The program, housed at Community Presbyterian Church, is run by volunteer Toni Somers, but she has said the future of the program is tenuous.

Somers, 73, suffers from multiple sclerosis. She has said her health problems could force her to withdraw from the program within the next year. The only other folks helping run the program are four volunteers.

In other school board news, the agenda for tonight's meeting does not include the recently debated subject of a drug-testing program. However, community members still are free to address the board with opinions on the subject during the meeting's public comment period.

Trustees for the past few months have been discussing whether to institute a program that could include random drug testing for students. All of the board members have said they will not decide whether to support the concept until learning specifics about what it would entail.

Wiggins has been gathering information on the matter for trustees. He said he expects to make a recommendation, one way or another, at the board's March meeting.