County presents 2080 agreement to fund school-based opioid prevention curriculum

County staff presented a five-year ‘‘2080 agreement’’ on June 17 to fund prevention curriculum in the four public school districts in Scott County using opioid settlement dollars. The staff presenter said the agreement would support a universal, evidence-based curriculum the districts selected and that three of the four districts have already approved the agreement while one had the item on its agenda that week.

The presenter said the curriculum selected is CharacterStrong and that the county asked the districts to select ‘‘evidence-based curriculum’’ before bringing options to the team. ‘‘We very much wanted this to be a process led by the schools,’’ the presenter said, noting the county is not in the education business and that schools will help define measurable objectives and reporting metrics for the program.

The presenter said Christina Lyon from the county attorney’s office reviewed the agreement. Staff described the next steps as working with the districts to identify the data and reporting that will be meaningful for both the schools and county administrators. The presenter also said the county would reach out to nonpublic schools about interest in a later phase but would first focus on the four public districts because they serve the majority of students.

No final board action or vote appears in the meeting transcript; the item was presented for the board’s consideration and staff indicated further work with school districts on measurable objectives and reporting would follow.