The Spotsylvania School Board on Monday voted against implementing pre-hire drug testing of employees, but also voted against postponing discussion of the topic indefinitely.
A motion to develop a policy for implementing drug testing of new hires and rehires who work directly with students in any capacity failed by a vote of 4-to-3, as did a substitute motion to consider implementing testing only of new hires and rehires who work with elementary and special education students.
Board members Larry DiBella (Berkeley), Rich Lieberman (Lee Hill), and Lorita Daniels (Salem) supported both motions, while Belen Rodas (Chancellor), Carol Medawar (Courtland), and Jennifer Craig-Ford (Battlefield), joined board chair Megan Jackson (Livingston) in voting against them.
“I do struggle with this,” Jackson said. “As a parent, I was shocked to learn that we don’t do this. But from a school board member lens, it doesn’t seem like the best idea… I think the sentiment is good, but I think we have also learned that your knee-jerk reactions are not always in the best interest of the school division.”
The issue of drug testing previously came up in March at the request of Lieberman, who said it was a campaign promise to voters. At that time, and again on Monday, division staff said there has been one drug-related termination each fiscal year since 2024.
That represents “about 200ths of one percent of all active employees,” Human Resources Director Amy Williams said Monday.
Among school bus drivers, who are mandated by federal law to undergo pre-employment drug testing because they are considered to be “safety-sensitive positions,” eight potential employees were denied employment due to a failed drug test over the past three years. In the same time frame, four randomly selected drivers were terminated due to failing drug tests.
Williams on Monday presented cost estimates for testing different employee populations for the presence of cocaine, opiates, PCP and amphetamines. Based on a three-year average of hiring data, it would cost the division about $25,000 per year to test all new hires and rehires; $19,300 to test all those with direct contact with students; and $11,600 to test only those with direct contact with elementary students.
The estimates do not include ongoing operational costs, such as salaries for additional staff needed to support the drug testing program.
Williams said it would take about a year to update policies, recruitment and onboarding materials; establish procedures and logistics; and prepare staff and facilities for implementing the program.
Lieberman said a $25,000 expense would be worthwhile to prevent an incident such as the one that occurred in May 2024, in which a teacher at Spotswood Elementary was arrested and found guilty of possessing drugs in her second grade classroom.
“This is something I believe should have been done and that this board got wrong before,” Lieberman said.
Williams pointed out that since the 2024 incident, the division implemented annual online training for all employees on drug-free workplaces, “to empower all of our staff to recognize signs of substance abuse … and the appropriate steps to take to report that, both from a supportive lens and a lens of ensuring safety.” Since that incident, all administrators receive training on reasonable suspicion, she said, and staff are preparing to bring recommended policy on this issue to the school board.
Craig-Ford pointed to these changes and the fact that the post-employment drug testing mechanisms already in place have only identified one violation per year as reasons for voting against implementation.
“This is not a vote to minimize substance abuse or compromise student safety,” she said. “But good governance requires us to distinguish between responding thoughtfully and adopting a broad policy years later because of a single high-profile event. I have not seen evidence to justify requiring every prospective employee to submit to a drug test.”
Rodas and Medawar said a blanket pre-employment drug testing policy will hinder teacher recruitment and retention.
“We need to stop lobbing accusations at our staff,” Rodas said. “I am appreciative of the changes that have been made [since the 2024 incident]. I think they make a difference in the best possible way, to support staff members who need it, which should be the ultimate goal. We want to be able to connect them to the resources they need to recover, not just punish them. I will be voting against this every time we talk about it.”
Medawar said she would rather the funding be spent on “developing our building leaders to be in touch with and engaged with staff who might be struggling.”
“This is a dignity thing. And as a 30-year veteran teacher sitting here, I think it is insulting,” she said.
Board members also brought up legal concerns. There is no state or federal mandate to drug-test non-CDL employees, according to the staff presentation, and board members raised concerns about privacy and Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
No other school divisions in Virginia have pre-employment drug testing programs in place for non-CDL employees, staff said in March. Teachers in school divisions in other states that have such programs in place may have been legally defined as being “safety-sensitive positions.”
“We’re trying to say that teachers are in safety-sensitive positions, but they are not legally defined that way [in Virginia],” Jackson said.
At the end of the discussion, Craig-Ford made a motion to postpone further discussion of the issue indefinitely, but the motion failed by a 4-to-3 vote, with Jackson joining DiBella, Lieberman, and Daniels in voting against it.
Also on Monday, the board received information about implementing the Rap Back program, which was approved and partially funded at a meeting earlier this year.
Rap Back is an automated, ongoing background check service administered through the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the staff presentation, it includes continuous criminal-history monitoring of employees by the Virginia State Police and the FBI, and notification of qualifying criminal justice events after employment.
Implementation will begin this fiscal year with a $64,000 investment, which will enroll new hires and rehires and about 1,300 active employees. To enroll the entire workforce in future fiscal years, it will cost an additional $136,000.
After full implementation, the ongoing annual expense is estimated at about $65,000, Williams said.
Superintendent Clint Mitchell asked for the board’s support in enforcing issues that may come up as a result of Rap Back.
“There may be someone who was background checked 28 years ago who might have committed a crime, but not in Virginia,” he said. “There will be those cases. As a board we will need to develop some criteria and look at our policies on how to address these issues when they come up. Some of it may lead to terminations. We want to make sure you are aware that there will be implications of this and myself and HR will need the full support of this board when we attempt to address those concerns.”
