One of the big news items this week has to do with St. Edward High School, St. Ignatius High School and Gilmour Academy all kicking off a mandatory drug-testing program for their students in the fall. It's an interesting story because no other schools in Northeast Ohio presently test their students for drug use.

Another interesting point of fact is that the president and CEO of Massachusetts-based Psychemedics - the company that will be conducting the tests - is Raymond Kubacki, brother of St. Edward High School President James Kubacki. The former is a St. Ignatius grad himself and a member of that school's athletic hall of fame.

Since 1991, Raymond Kubacki has helmed Psychemedics, and he's now posting $7+ million in revenue on a quarterly basis. The intersection of private schools and the drug-testing market is a budding one. He told the Worcester Business Journal in December 2013, "Our primary focus is workplace drug testing. Secondarily would be emerging markets and one of those would be schools and colleges."

K.C. McKenna, vice president of admissions and marketing at St. Edward High School, says the decision to work with Psychemedics came after several years of research led by an internal committee.

"Really, this came about as a proactive, preventative measure. There was nothing in our own community that necessarily prompted this. This is not a reactionary endeavor by any means," he tells Scene. "Our committee, which included members of our board of trustees, a member of our faculty and other members of our administration, looked at the issue as a whole and arrived at the Psychemedics decision. Certainly, Jim knew a little more about the process because of his brother being involved, but his brother being CEO of that company in no way led to us making the decision to use Psychemedics."

On the ground, the Psychemedics initiative will affect about 980 students at St. Ed's (along with 340 at Gilmour and 1,500 or so at St. Ignatius). The hair testing costs $39 to $50 a pop

more @ http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/04/29/president-of-drug-testing-company-is-brother-of-st-edward-high-school-president