Bill Halle

The nonprofit founded and run by Butler School Board member Bill Halle will not benefit from the school’s new drug policy, Halle said Tuesday.

Halle founded Grace Youth and Family Foundation in 1993, according to the group’s website. Among other services, the organization provides drug and alcohol testing.

Monday night, Halle mounted a strong defense of the district’s new drug testing policy, which ended up getting adopted. The district will soon be soliciting bids from drug testing providers.

“This isn’t necessarily a punitive policy,” Halle said Monday night. “This is going to provide a lot of help and an opportunity for young people who need it.”

His preference was not backed by any financial gains to be had, he asserted in an interview Tuesday.

“Just to be clear, we’re not going to bid on that or be involved at all,” Halle said.

Halle’s nonprofit handles drug testing of about 40 to 50 young people every year, he said. Grace Youth and Family Foundation is one of about three groups parents can opt to use for weekly testing required through certain school disciplinary programs. Halle said GYFF’s pool of students are pulled from several school districts, including Butler.

Halle said the nonprofit loses money on those tests, as they cost about $30 to administer, and they charge recipients $20.

He also said his foundation couldn’t handle the drug testing the district plans to administer.

“What the school is looking to do would be beyond our purview,” Halle said.

Board President Nina Teff said Halle’s involvement in drug testing is unrelated to Monday’s policy change, and that anyone thinking otherwise is misunderstanding the situation. Federal Emergency Management Association Tom King, the district’s solicitor, echoed Teff.

“I can say 100 percent he wouldn’t be involved in that,” King said.

Halle said he suspects “certain members of our board” may think he pushed for the policy for a financial gain, but he wouldn’t name who.

Publicly available Grace Youth and Family Foundation nonprofit earnings reports from recent years show Halle earning about $3,000 a year as compensation.

The district’s newly adopted policy requires students wanting to drive to and from the school’s campus or participate in extracurricular activities not related to class grades to opt-in to random drug testing.

Superintendent Brian White said $10,000 from the district’s general fund has been allocated for the testing. Parents will only be paying for follow-up tests if students fail the initial school-bought test and the parents want to regain extracurricular eligibility or on-campus driving rights for their child.

Halle said his group wouldn’t involve itself in those follow-up tests either, and he would advocate for whatever organization providing the initial tests to also provide that test.

Sport Safe Testing Service provides drug testing for Mars and Seneca Valley school districts. Random drug testing in Butler is set to begin in the fall.