The Tamaqua Area School Board is putting employee drug testing on hold.

The board officially tabled policies regarding random sampling of TASD employees at Tuesday night’s meeting.

“One thing that our board looked at, if we did a first reading knowing we would have major changes, then we probably shouldn’t pass it as a first reading,” said Ray Kinder, superintendent. “Let’s wait, take it off the table, add it and do another first reading - whether that’s in June or July or whenever it may be.”

Kinder discussed some specifics at last week’s meeting - including how many employees would be tested per month, which he said was just an example.

“When I gave those numbers, I thought I was specific with what I said - I’m doing this because it’s easy math. It’s not a recommendation,” Kinder said. “That’s where all that stuff came from. Some people thought perhaps those were numbers that were being targeted - they never were. But in essence, we haven’t really gotten to that point yet.”

The board announced last week that it’s working in conjunction with St. Luke’s University Health Network.

No policy or procedure is in place for random employee drug testing - but it’s a different story for students. Kinder said some students who participate in extracurricular activities at the secondary level are randomly selected by software each month to get tested.

“You can test in any number of ways. You can have it supplied to different groups of people and who you want to include in and who you don’t. We have to figure out some of those things as well.”

Kinder hopes a plan can be in place for the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.

“It’s always great to start things in the beginning of the school year, but there are times you start things a few months in.

Whenever something is a good idea, it’s better to start earlier than later,” Kinder added.

No tax increase

The board passed a motion to have no tax increase for its 2021-22 preliminary budget.

“I think what the board decided tonight, was that rather than leave that open ended, and perhaps put the fear into some people’s thoughts about what they may do, they wanted to rest assured and let everyone know the direction they’re going in,” Kinder said.