Random Drug Testing in High School

Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey has introduced a plan for High Schools to start randomly testing students for drug use (as long as the parents have signed off). The local school districts can choose whether or not they want to participate in the program. My hope is Bedford will choose not to and here is why:

So far any real study of random drug testing in the school system has not proven to deter students from using those drugs. Here are a couple of links you should check out that state that fact more eloquently than myself, The Highs and Lows of Drug Testing and Drug Tests in Schools Fail. I don’t automatically agree with everything that these sites state but the articles are good and concise.

Massachusetts is willing to pony up $20,000 per school system that opts into this testing program. Massachusetts is then hoping to also get federal funding with the hopes that the combined money will cover the entire cost for those school systems. Lets just assume that between what Mass is willing to cover and federal grant money the cities and towns don’t have to put any additional funding into the program, doesn’t the money seem better spent on educating the kids rather then drug testing them?

If a parent has concerns about their child don’t they still have the right to go to their primary doctor and discuss options (in private)? Can’t they still request a drug test (again in private)? To me this seems like a colossal waste of money that would be much better spent educating students; please let me know what you think.

Bedford Real estate

Just wanted to add a quick link to a service that you might enjoy. The Donovan Group Realtors have set up a service that will email you when houses go on the market (or price changes) that fit your search criteria. Check it out.

Blue Ribbon Dairy

There was a nice letter in the Bedford Minuteman this past week. It was talking about walking & shopping in Bedford. The main gist of the article was that Bedford was not designed friendly for walkers and that the new development going in at the Blue Ribbon Dairy site will not help. They are proposing having parking in the front, which will once again affect walking in Bedford adversely.

For those of you that don’t know, the Blue Ribbon Dairy site is located on The Great Road near the Sunoco. They are planning to put in a one-story building containing a bank and other retail establishments and yes, they would like to have parking in front of the building. The good news, from what I understand, is that the Bedford Planning Board is trying to stick to Bedford’s Comprehensive Plan and is using their influence to keep parking in the back of the building. Also they want to make sure that there is a nice green barrier.

Two more points of interest, while driving around Bedford this weekend I noticed that AvalonBay has been doing a lot of work recently. Is there any new news on that development? Secondly, it looks like there is going to be more work starting soon at the Depot Park. Does anyone know what is planned next for that site?

BRAC News

Good news for Bedford from the BRAC report, Hanscom AFB looks to gain 11 hundred new jobs. For all that are interested here is a link to BRAC 2005 Closure and Realignment Impacts by State (This is in PDF format). Enjoy. As a side note: What do you all think about the Otis National Guard closure?

New Links

I just wanted to add two more links about 40B and AvalonBay. The first is Citizens for a Safe Bedford web site. It is the official site that is still fighting the development of AvalonBay. I am going to add this link to the sidebar of links. Also, I want to share a link Bedford’s Comprehensive affordable Housing Plan (this is in PDF format). As always any comments or suggestions are welcome.

BRAC

We should know the fate of the BRAC very soon although it will still be a long process. Today Donald H. Rumsfeld’s recommendations go to the BRAC Commission. The commission will examine the recommendations and make its independent judgment on each. The commission will present its list to President Bush in September. The president may approve or disapprove the list in total. If he approves it, it will go to Congress. Congress has 45 days to disapprove the list. If it does not, the list becomes law.

There is an article about the process on the DOD web site that many of you might find interesting. You can follow this link DOD Article to read it. What I wonder about is the effect that it will have on Bedford. The easy thing to look at would be the loss of income coming from local businesses. What I think might be the largest problem would be the affect to Bedford school system. Bedford gets money from the government for every high school student it takes in from Hanscom AFB. I’d like to know what you think?

Mosquitoes

This is a recent article about the mosquito problem that AvalonBay project will be causing. The link is http://www.townonline.com/bedford/opinion/view.bg?articleid=237289

Also a nice picture of Town Hall



Town Hall 

First Post

This is the first post to the Blog dedicated to the development of Bedford, MA. Feel free to make any comments you’d like. To start I am going to add relevant links to the site and hopefully expand from there.