Alcohol sparks school board debate
by Brent Shrum, Kootenai Valley Record
June 25, 2008
The serving of alcohol on school property at the Memorial Center sparked a debate last week among Libby school officials.
School board member Gela Koehler raised the issue at Monday’s board meeting, saying she’s concerned that efforts at Libby Middle School to reduce underage drinking are being undermined. She pointed to numerous events at the Memorial Center involving alcohol, including the Logger Days beer garden, a planned “OctoBEERFest” this fall, and various other concerts and dinners.
The Memorial Center – formerly a school gym before it was rebuilt into a multipurpose facility for performing arts and community events – is owned by the school but leased to and managed by the Kootenai Heritage Council.
“I can understand that feeling,” school board chair Jerry Frament told Koehler, “but I can also understand where we don’t really control that.”
“Well, that’s what they said about smoking, too, and we don’t smoke in the school anymore or anywhere else,” Koehler said.
Board member Tony Rebo questioned the economic viability of the Memorial Center if events involving alcohol are no longer allowed.
“I hate to say it, but I can tell you if you take them away from that building it will end up closing,” he said.
People expect alcohol to be available at such events, board member John Herrmann suggested.
“It’s sort of a cultural norm, and that’s the problem,” he said.
“It’s going to have to change, and the federal government is going to make us change,” Koehler said.
When it comes to underage drinking, parental responsibility is the key, Frament said.
“My son is 17 and he does not drink alcohol and he does not smoke,” he said. “That’s a parent’s prerogative.”
Koehler said she’s been to events at the Memorial Center where adults were drinking with children at the table. Adults shouldn’t be drinking in front of kids, said Libby High School principal Rik Rewerts.
“I think we lead by our actions, but I don’t know if we’re going to be able to change society at this time,” he said.
Rewerts also raised doubts as to whether the terms of the agreement with the Kootenai Heritage council gives the district the authority to ban alcohol from the Memorial Center.
“It’s our building, but it’s leased to them, so they basically have control the way the lease is written,” he said.
In other business, Rewerts recommended to the board that the district lower graduation requirements for a general education diploma from 24 credits to 23 to help reduce the dropout rate at Libby High School. The reduced number would still be more than the 22 or 22.5 credits required by most other schools in Libby’s conference and well ahead of the state minimum of 20 credits, he said.
The reduction would provide “a light at the end of the tunnel” for kids who fall behind early in their high school years, Rewerts said.
“These kids struggle anyway, and it’s almost making a giant hill that they can’t climb,” he said. “If they were able to climb that kind of hill, they wouldn’t be in that kind of trouble to begin with.”
The loosened requirements might be enough to keep five students in each class from dropping out, Rewerts said.
“If we keep things the way they are, it really puts them behind the eight ball as far as finishing on time,” he said.
Board member Paula Darko-Hensler said she thinks part of the problem is that students at the middle school aren’t being required to pass any classes to move on to the high school.
“Nothing counts until they get to high school, and they don’t know how much it counts when they get to high school,” she said.
There should be more consequences at the middle school and more kids held back if they don’t pass, Darko-Hensler said. Those students need to be taught accountability, she said.
“I think a lot of the reason they’re failing is because they choose to,” she said.
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Editor’s Note: See the June 23, 2008 edition of the Kootenai Valley Record for the printed version of this story. The Kootenai Valley Record publishes once a week, on Monday, in Libby, Montana. They are a locally owned community newspaper, located at 403 Mineral Avenue in Libby. For in-county and out-of-county subscription information, call 406-293-2424, or e-mail kvrecord@gmail.com.
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