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As a follow-up to helping the district find a new superintendent, Arrow Education Inc. partner Dr. Sandra Lowry met with RISD in a workshop to discuss the board’s goals for the upcoming school year.
“Instruction is first and foremost the most important reason we are here,” Lowry said. “But most boards have other short and long term goals to reach during the school year and beyond.” All the board members said they wanted to improve for the children they serve. “I’ve got kids and I wanted to be involved in the decision making,” said board member David Fulton, when asked why he joined the school board. The board also was asked to name three long and short term goals it wanted to try to focus on for the 2001-2002 school year. All the trustees agreed bringing TAAS scores up was the main short-term concern. |
Sheriff James Campbell said his department had received information leading to the investigation of the property where the plants were seized, near the Elm Grove Community.
“That area seems to be a hot spot this year,” Campbell said. “We found an older plant growing there, probably ten feet high, indicating it was probably there last year.”
Although the site was missed last year, on Saturday the department seized 46 plants, valued at $1,593 per plant.
Campbell said the Drug Enforcement Agency sets the value of the plants.
“It varies from year to year, and size and shape don’t matter,” he said. “Each plant is worth the same, according to street value.”
The plants ranged in height from two feet to six feet.
The marijuana was located on property belonging to an out of state absentee land owner.
The confiscated marijuana plants will be held as evidence pending the identification of any suspects in the case.
The marijuana plants will then later be turned over to Department of Public Safety Narcotics Service personnel so a destruction order can be sought.
Campbell said an investigation will continue, with his office seeking suspects and the possible discovery of additional plants.
The DEA, along with the Texas Department of Public Safety, was involved last month in a Cherokee County marijuana bust worth $9 million.
That field was located north of Ponta, according to Campbell.
Earlier this year, the sheriff’s department made 58 narcotic-related arrests in a 125-day period between Jan. 1 and May 5.
Mary Beth Garmon can be reached via e-mail to mbgarmon@jacksonvilleprogress.com