001Okay, I will call to order uh the meeting of the South County Board of Education. Um the first thing we're going to do tonight is the oath of office for our new board member, incumbent Brian Casey. Eddie, you can read your oath. We solemnly swear. I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York. And I will faithfully discharge duties of the office of board members. Sign your card. Congratulations. Now we'll do roll call. Thomas here. Brian Casey. Hogan here. Jennifer here. Ke here. Jessica Larby here. Robert we will ask for so we know he's here I will give the oath of office to superintendent solely swear that I will support the constitution of the United States constitution of the state of New York and I will
002faithfully discharge the duties the office of superend Superintendent recommends the appointment of Amber Lanigan as Mr. Clerk period July 2025 through July 2026. Have a motion. Motion made by Mr. Blakeley. Second move by Discovery. questions. All in favor? Motion carries. I doly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of district. And now we will take nominations to the office of the president of the board of education. Second motion made by Mike King, seconded by Tely that um Miss Kogan be appointed as president of the board of education and be administered at the old back office. All in any opposed vote carries eight to zero. I do solemnly swear that I will
003support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of President Board of Education. Now nominations will be accepted to the office of vice president of board of education. Okay. Any second made by Mr. Blakeley seconded by Mr. Mis that Mr. Mister the oath of office. All in favor? I to zero. Mr. Killer. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New York and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Vice President Board of Education. [Music] Thank you very much. Agenda item number six, board of education meeting schedule. We're going to recommend the adoption of the 2025 2026 schedule of regular
004board and of education meetings. They're to be held here on Tuesdays at 6:30 unless otherwise noticed. in the summer. We can leave at 6 um at the district office 102 drive. Some exceptions have been made to avoid conflicts and holy days of various religious groups, state and national conferences or extended school resource periods. Unless I have any questions, I take a motion. Miss Hulahan second Mr. on the motion made by Miss Gulahan, seconded by Mr. Mis that the above stated 2025 2026 board of education meeting schedule be adopted. All in favored. Motion carries 8 to Z. Item number seven and you'll see a whole list. The superintendent recommends approval of the following appointments as indicated. This is A through B D on page six. Are there any questions? Hearing none, I'll take a motion. Mr.
005Larby, Mr. Casey, on the mo motion made by Mr. Larby, seconded by Mr. Casey, that the above seemed appointments be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries eight to zero. Agenda item number eight, resolutions. The superintendent recommends approval of the following. This is A through K on page N. Any questions? Is there a motion? Mr. Musk, second Mr. Blakeley. On the motion made by Mr. Mis, seconded by Mr. Blakeley, that we stated resolutions be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number nine, authorizations and recommendations for action. The superintendent recommends approval of the following. A relax page 17. Take a minute, please. page 17. Why change? You'll be able to do the methods. None. I'll take a motion. Mr. Blakeley. Second. Mr. Keane. On the motion made by
006Mr. Blakeley, seconded by Mr. Kee, that the above stated authorizations recommendations be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Item number 10, adjourn this reorganizational meeting. Mr. Casey, Mr. On the motion made by Mr. Casey, seconded by Mr. King that the reorganizational meeting of the board of education be adjourned. Time is 609. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. Mr. Sim, Mr. Casey, remember the old days when we do one at a time forever. So, we can roll right into the All right, everybody. Oh, yeah. Um, first first matter, we have two public hearings that commence tonight. First is the code of conduct and any persons interested parties and citizens uh regarding the adoption of the proposed 2025 2026 code of conduct policy 5300 and the code
007of conduct claim language summary. This is the beginning of 30-day comment period. You can direct those right here to the district office. Public hearing two, South Colony Districtwide School Safety Plan. And this is begins the public hearing for the purpose of receiving comments from all interested parties and citizens regarding the adoption of the proposed 2026 South Colony Districtwide School Safety Plan and the project same commissioners regulation 155.17. Again, public comment will be open for 30 days from today. Regular meeting of the South Colony Board of Education will be called to order. Roll call. Thomas Blakeley here. Ryan Casey. Stephanie Kogan here. Rose Gello is excused. Jennifer Hulahan here. Michael Keane here. David Keel here. Christopher Larabe here. Robert Mason here. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States
008of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God. Agenda item number three, approval of minutes. These minutes were of the regular meeting of June 24th, 2025. Are there any questions or comments on these minutes? Hearing none, I'll take a motion. Mr. Mis, Mr. Keane, on the motion made by Mr. Mis, seconded by Mr. Keane that the minutes of the regular meeting of the June 24th, 2025 meeting be approved. All in favor. Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number four, superintendent update. Dr. H. Yes. Good evening everyone. Watching at home, Mr. Sim. I just wanted to again congratulate our class of 2025 graduates. Was an outstanding uh ceremony last Wednesday. Uh thank you to Mr. Burl, high school principal, Mrs. Judge, grade level principal. Mrs. Bulock who's our
009graduation coordinator really did a great job, Mr. Ken Scratchy, Mr. Ryan Music, Mr. Karian for making sure behind the scenes together and to all of our staff set up, break down uh just truly a successful operation. So, thank you. Um, tonight we'll be um discussing uh some of the adjustments to a new draft uh policy for mobile devices in um our K12 schools or prek prek or cell phone or channel. Um and uh so that'll be one of the things that uh we'll discuss uh tonight. Also wanted to welcome uh Vincent Frenzo, our student board member to uh our meeting. So Vincent welcome before Vincent's a rising 11th grader. Um other thing I just want to make people aware of is just the uh cautionary tape around our capital project locations specifically meter l and
010high school. Please be careful around that the uh construction work. A lot of it is fenced off. Uh but careful with your vehicles and careful in your individual as you walk through some of our properties. Those sites for the most part are shut down for the work but to that completion uh for the project at the end of the summer process but just be cautious around that I just want to give kudos to everybody in the district involved. Congratulations again really really well done. Uh, also congratulations to all of our academic hall of fame inductees. Um, that we saw some really good folks who represented pride and what the district has done for was awesome. Um, also just take a moment to remind our students to stay safe over the summer. You're going to go
011swimming, do anything like that. Make sure you're following proper precautions. Don't get hurt. We want to see you back in fall. Um, and let everyone know about the multitude of summer youth sports opportunities that are out there to keep the kids busy during the summer. Uh, I know I just saw today lacrosse has an opening uh turf time going on. I know there's a girls flag football clinic that Virginia Wolfpack is hosting with in conjunction with the nursing program. So, um, lots of stuff to keep kids busy. So, enjoy your summer. Thank you very much, Mr. M. Yeah, Mr. Adding on to what Mr. Like I said, it was wonderful to see our new inductees into the academic hall of fame. Three very wonderfully qualified people, graduates of high school and uh a diverse group
012of people. And I would just like to if anybody's listening out there, we are opening up the nomination process again for a uh ceremony in November to honor Hall of Fame inductees. So if anybody anybody listening or anybody here at the table, if you can think of some people, we would greatly like the nomination so that we can include more people. We know they're out there that have done wonderful things for the school district or the humanity or the community, whatever that we would like to honor. So, please nominate them. go to the uh um district website, go to the academic tab and you'll find a place where it says hall of fame and there's where the application is and I believe we have a communication going out and we're supposed to do something because
013the ceremony is November cut off date will be September where did we land right at the end of August. Okay. so that we have enough time to um to to get that through. Mr. I'm not on the academic committee, but I want to give kudos to that group. Uh Tom, great job ceremony has evolved very nicely over the last several years. And also just want to recognize the three kids that uh presented to the academic name. Hopefully I'm correct. Abby, Leia, and Dylan. Great job. William got there. Thank you very much, Mr. Casey. All board members should have gotten a notice today from St. Arts, I think it is. There's a play coming up in July 18th. So that sounds like a good graduation. It's magical and I love everything. Thank you. Whatever. Whatever. Really
014nice. And then it was followed up the next day by the Elisha Hill moving up ceremony. They both fabulous. Fabulous. was your other kid. Yes, he all we all cried. Uh yeah, thanks to everybody, Colleen, Mullik, you and your team. So, thank you so very much. And Mr. Casey said the Mean Girls Jr. is going to be put on Friday, July 18th at 7 o'clock and Saturday, July 19th at 100 p.m. and 7 p.m. Uh the board has been invited. If you would like to have a ticket set aside for you, please uh reply to Alli Lia. Secondly, we do have NISPA is offering a couple conferences this summer. First is the 2025 summer law conference that's in Albany at the Desmond on the 31st. On August 1st and 2nd is a leadership in education.
015It is a two-day program. Uh it sounds terrific. I'm going to go. Mr. Keel, you expressed interest. Mr. Blakeley, you too. Anybody else? If you are, be sure to tell. Please let me know. No. So, it's a three of us right now. So, who did you say PJ might? Yeah, it's hard to it's it's really not the law conference. The leadership conference. I wish I could go to the law conference. I just can't clear my schedule. Yeah. I went last year and it's full of policy updates and there's a lot. It's a lot. July 30. They give you a really good lunch. You want to go, please let know. Anybody else? It was a great year. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. It was a great year. And here we are beginning the new.
016So, welcome to 2025, 2026. There we go. Um, last under new business, I would like to give a minute to Vincent Fenzo, who is our new expio student member of the board. Vincent will be bringing items of concern and ideas to the board. Um, Vincent does not vote. He doesn't take part in an executive session, but he is he is committed to the whole other body of facts. Vincent, thank you for joining us. Thank you for volunteering for this. Tell us about yourself. So I've lived in Kali my entire life. I went to elementary school and then I went to middle school a rising 11th grader high. I I am the vice president of the class 2027 and I am IRE's I was I cares volunteer coordinator and now I am the co- vice president
017and I was I was asked to do this I was asked to run for this position because staff members administrators my other classmates and peers saw me as somebody that is honest and direct and could work well with adults and members of the board and could get this the point across honestly and directly and I appreciate that and I am so much looking forward to getting to know all of you and I've already met some of you and I'm looking forward to the rest of the year and I would also like to thank my other board member doubts who I ran against and we are so happy to get to know you guys and thank you for having me. body ready. Agenda item number six, communications. Nothing going on, Mr. Agenda item number seven, board
018committee reports. We have two. The first one is the audit and finance committee. that is that report is linked. Uh Mr. Blakeley, if you'd like to do any highlights or if anybody has any questions for Mr. Blakeley, now is the time. I just want to commend uh Jacqueline and everybody that works in the district office for uh finance department. They do a really really great job. Uh the rest of the district should be proud of the fact that every audit we have comes back very clean, very minor. You know, anything comes up, it's very minimal. Um, so kudos to them because it's a lot to have to manage. It's a lot to take care of. They do an excellent job. And next we have policy, Mr. L. Yeah. Um, first reading is going to be
0192245. And uh this is it's specific to uh Vincent's position and uh pretty much why as a district we are so proud to uh have you uh orever sits in this role and going forward um why we uh have the importance of uh having students to be able to sit on this and do this kind of stuff that you're very excited to and I don't see my little reading thing. Yeah, it's just so that does anybody else have any questions? I do have a question. The 100 signatures for the student, how did we determine that? Because when we run 25%. So how did we make that differentiation for students? Okay. It could be student or staff from any level. classmates. Yeah, I got mostly um like my high school students, a few teachers and staff
020members, but Okay, thank you very much. You're welcome. Agenda item number eight, reports and recommendations for action. These are letters A through I. Goes to page eight. Dr. Perry, do you have any commentary? Most of this is renewals of previously existing contracts as we roll over into the new year. So these are agreements to continue works. Just like to highlight letter I, donations. Donations from Andy Fern of one Yamaha Alto saxophone. Thank you very much. It helps the student and that's what we're all about. Any other questions, comments? Hearing none, I'll take a motion. Mr. Blakeley second. Mr. Mis on a motion made by M. Mr. Blakeley, seconded by Mr. music that the above state reports and recommendations be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number nine, personnel
021instruction. You will find this on page 11 because Mr. Robotti is not here. Dr. Kerry, do you have any? This is a little bit of clean up from summer school, but also uh just the appointment of the uh dean position middle school. Allison Burns um was a finalist in our administrative search for the high school positions. Uh she's been a teacher and a dean in the school and she's interested in having come on board for We're gonna actually get to any other questions, comments. Hearing none, I'll take a motion. Mr. Ke second Mr. Casey on the motion made by Mr. Keane, seconded by Mr. Casey that the instruction personnel changes listed on the attached sheets dated July 1, 2025 be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to zero. Agenda item number 10,
022personnel support. You'll find this on pages 12 and 13. Anything? Uh just want to thank those uh staff members that are leaving us. Um, we appreciate your support. I know to another position within the district, but thanks to Ros and look forward to recognizing and working with the new staff. Any questions? Hearing none, I'll take a motion. Mr. Second, Mr. key. On the motion made by Mr. Blakeley, seconded by Mr. Keane, that the support personnel changes listed on the attached sheets July 1st, 2025 be approved. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries 8 to Z. Agenda item number 11. Everybody did so well. We're going to give you the month of July off of board duty. and then we'll start them up again. Yes, I see that it says on the 12th that we'll be
023first reading the mobile devices in yes for input. So I wanted to talk about that tonight. Thank you for the transition if I may. um because uh we don't have a policy meeting between now and and August unless she's scheduled one. Um wanted to bring uh the draft of the policy tonight to talk answer questions. We had mentioned at the last meeting shared some updates with professional council and with PTA council but this is draft form. The goal is that we work through and redefine that meeting into the first meeting which will be August 12th with plans to uh hopefully approve it on August 26 start. Um this policy is designed to be compliant with the new law that requires a deltoell ban or internet enabled devices. internet devices or mobile devices. It's everything from
024your standard cell phone to a smartwatch, your Bluetooth enabled headphones and other devices aside from the devices that the schools issues. So that would apply to a Chromebook students or other devices we offer an iPad to student. Um obviously uh the state and the country has gone through back and forth uh the impact of of cell phones on student learning and distractions. Uh we're trying to meet the requirements of the law at the same point being mindful of the fact that it's still a very personal device. We know that students and parents want to have access to one another. um policy is written right now starts to talk about um how we'll communicate during the day when students cell phones are out of their of usage and that is going to have to be stored
025in their locker or in their back. Uh some districts are looking at the honor bags. We kicked around that that process uh got quotes the cost of the honor bags was significant about $61,000. We felt that we could finish the spirit of what was going on at least in this time period and see if we could do it a different way. Districts are are implementing the the bags. Some have already done that. Others are going the direction that we're recommending uh moving forward which is allowing the student to either secured in a locker or in their backpack. It's got to be turned off and out of sight. It's worked well in middle schools. It's obviously a non-issue in the elementary schools. Um, and just really want to educate and work with our students. Um, why
026this is important, should be important to them, should be important to their learning. And because the high school is is going to this, we need to do a good job messaging. There are some things that are out there beyond the ranks right now that are in the beginning stages. Um, and so that's why I recommend you not to go with purchasing. There's some um software companies that are working on um mobile apps that will allow you to put your cell phone into a mode similar to like airplane mode um mode that may become available and may meet the requirements of the law. Um there's also um other ways to to be stripped down. So we're going to look uh throughout the first quarter at uh this plan out. Uh we'll continue to collect data. The
027goal is not to be punitive with students. We understand that conflicts arise in anything we're trying to enforce whe it's a pass in the hallway or cell phone. Um it's how we approach that. We're looking to deescalate situations rather than escalate them. So in situations where student may be uh pulling their phone out or using their smartwatch, it's how we approach them and how we educate them on on the law. We have to do that early and often. We'll do that throughout the summer months with communications to our students and parents. Um we'll work with our own staff to go into the classrooms to educate students. But I also don't want it to become a distraction that that's all we're focusing. our kids have survived with cell phones and and restrictions being placed on them,
028but we can do a better job. And so I wanted to be clear that we are going to work to uh help support our teachers uh so that this does not become an issue. Most of the time students are compliant with ties for students to use their cell phones in classes and that's become distracting. Most of the areas that we've had referrals, if you will, have come in areas of hallway or have to where we've allowed it. It's been kind of the norm. So, we'll need to revisit that. We emphasize and reinforce the new expectations at the start of a new school year. We believe we can do that without the younger. Really not any changes at the prek through four level. Still encouraging families to keep those devices at home at all times. It
029really isn't an educational value in any prek through fourth grader having a cell phone. If for some reason there's a medical reason, there is an exemption for that. The middle school has always been uh either keep it in your locker or keep it at home. Students been good about that. Those two interactions we had uh they've been confiscated and returned at the end of the day and becomes a eventual problem with great parent to pick up the device. So that same thing is the plan to work out in the high school so that if a student is uh in violation of the policy uh whoever finds them in violation of the policy will redirect them and that could be the teacher or monitor the adult principal. Um not about trying to catch them doing something
030wrong. It's it's really reinforcing what the expectations are of kids helping them to become more responsive. Um there are some carveouts in this policy and in the law for medical reasons for ENL students or elves that may need it for translation services. Um medical exemption will work through the nurse's office. Um doctors note or PA reason for a child to have that possibly for monitoring blood glucose or some other uh areas. Um then that can be a carve out. We don't want to restrict that period, but it'll be restricted to that purpose. It should not be used for communicating with your classmate unless it's purposes. Translation purposes certainly can be utilized. We're not trying to restrict our kids from learning English communicating better when our staff um time working through issues. We also have students
031that are using devices like iPads that are distributed um distributed and those are for communication purposes and those are not part of this problem. An iPad for communicating with your classmates or or your teacher that's not going to restrict you from doing these types of things. Nor would you need a medical excuse to have that be part of your IEP program. the um process of collecting the data. We do have a program in Aspen that allows us to chart student discipline and things like that. That's where I envision it going into comments area. We can run a report how many times you know John senior uh had a violation of what that most likely what the comments are and we can run those reports at the end of the 10 time period. take a look
032and see is this becoming an issue and where it's become an issue. I think that's the important part it's a metal ban but we want to focus on the classroom school bus and so making sure we um the law does not allow for suspensions related to cell phone. So the fear is that you escalate a situation where it starts out with a cell phone but it becomes disrespect and all of a sudden we're taking a kid out started with a cell phone but I think disrespect um that's with any situation. I don't care what it is the cell phone but in any situation we need to do better if we're escalating situations where kids are becoming inappropriate or really large and that's a learning curve as well. you know, goal is not to suspend kids
033over cell phones or create issues for them, but to help them become better students and less distracted. So, I'll pause there a little bit. I know that probably some questions and comments that'll mention that is not quite there yet. Uh I mentioned to the board um student square uh that is um it it's not released yet. It's still in the planning stage. So that could be a solution. It's not yet and I don't have a deadline to say for September. But student square is a student version of parent square that could potentially allow for parent to student or student parent communication directly. It wouldn't allow Vincent to communicate with his classmates, but it would be communication with him. It's not there yet according Mr. is something that parents square the company is looking at because
034of the need I know throughout the state looking way to do that. So just wanted to make people aware of that. So we're looking at some some options as we manage this without Dave. In the past, you've uh mentioned that you'll be that the district will be asking students and parents their for their input. Do you have any information about what they they told us? So, uh the I um we did a survey. The survey was probably one of our most popular surveill time period. I think we had 800 responses. So, typically we put out a survey when we had three or 400. So, The common concerns were accessing their child during the day in an emergency situation. Those two items exclusively each other and um you know how that would go about getting in
035touch with the child and then managing the I'll call after school activities the schedule of the child. We know that kids are busy where to pick them up where where to drop them off when you pick it up early or whatnot. Um so those were the the the major concerns that attendees had. Um most were um in agreement with the idea of a bell ban, but there are certainly uh concerns about taking away that individual cell phone and some parents voiced in the comments that you know whatever. So, so again, whether it's beyond your bags or locking it in a locker or in your backpack, it's still intended to be on their person. So, we're not we're not taking that away unless they violate policy and then that becomes something level principal may confiscate it
036for for that day, return it back and uh you know, the policy for those kind were were predominantly what been there. I think that um you know there's confusion as to what is a internet device. Um so we try to define that as much as positive to be able to get message out there. The good thing was that most people were aware of the new law that had responded in survey. So out of those 800 some odd um people that responded they were aware of the law. Um, so that was a good thing and I think that's part of the education process. When we did the stop the school bus and stop arm cameras and that we had to educate them, put out PR. This is kind of the same thing. I think we reset
037that expectation to our students. They'll reach it. Um, but we we need to fair to them, give them proper notice. So throughout the month of July and August, we're going to continue to make sure we message it out again as we work with the principles at all levels, but more specifically at the high school level because this will be a bigger change. What are expectations of staff in utilizing their devices? So the law does not restrict their devices. Um, you know, I think what we would try to do is that within our classroom setting setting, we should be modeling the Um, it's not to say that a teacher can't, you know, respond to something going on. Certainly in an emergency situation, we're going to allow them to do that, but I would hope that they're
038not taking personal calls in the middle of math class or news class. I'm sure it happens. Everybody's lives are busy, but that's modeling the great behavior. So, um, we've tried as as a board cabinet here when we have meetings to silence our phones and and try to put them aside. And you know, I think that's really message I want to reiterate for our staff as well. Certainly when students are in your presence, we should not in the staff room or somewhere else involve. But I'm deeply curious about your perspective on this. I personally see cell phones are like a big problem in schools. We all can agree with that. Um personally I have to fix my parents um almost every day during the day like I have to be picked up at this time. I
039have a meeting this time. I have to go to board of education uh staying at this time. That's just that's my main concern. And I was surprised that the state um didn't only limit it to classroom use. I'm surprised they also took out lunchtime and passing during the study halls. But do take away from education. It does prohibit that and and some students take advantage of teachers and uh their learning time and but it also hinders a lot of like personal connections and kids don't talk to each other anymore. I do do I always want to talk to my peers all the time? No. Um, but it does I understand where the state's coming from, but I I do think uh the law could have been uh changed a little bit, but I think that
040the district is going in the correct direction and uh trusting trying to trust students and I think that the student square idea is very good and that could be helpful and I think that we're going in the right direction. So, I'm wondering about how you feel about um like secretary said, you know, it's mostly not a problem in class. Like, is that your lived experience? Like, do you think that you in my you know that I work in Alman and I know that our teachers are very fatigued by having to police cell phones, right? Like they just want to teach. They don't want to have to do that piece. And one of my concerns transparent by not doing it kind of at the door of the counter is that now I love the idea of
041like let's give our kids a shot to trust them to do the right thing but I'm concerned about falling on the teachers instead of like the doorway and I'm wondering your perspective should not be feel obligated to do something that it's not that's not their job description and phones and and I teachers that have used those pockets that you see in the class. They have set up right first day of school, just put them there. It won't be a problem. A lot of teachers have it as like a grade and after they do that for attendance, but you don't have question. No, you are different. I I feel like an upright conversation with students on the first day. this is my expectation of you and then I the classes that I around every student but
042I do hope I do think that an upgrade open assembly or the first day of school the principal or teacher saying this is what are doing abide by that. I think Vinc good point in my mind because if if I'm my second period teacher says, you know, if you stay after school, I can help you. You can raise your grade. So, I want to tell mom and dad I'm not going to come home on the bus because my second period teacher just told me this. So how can we get around how how can I communicate that to my parent until I I don't want to wait till the end of the day. You do a classroom. So with permission student that's not cool. It's also so but that's why we're looking at some alternatives on
043what can we do to meet them. A law is designed I think it's got good intentions but with any law there's and I think in this case we may see some tweak in the technology that becomes available versus what agree with about his smartwatch that he's got out there. Vince is probably not texting on his smartwatch but he may get a communication saying pick you up at noon or whatever. We all have those things, but we got to ban that. Put that away from you. We really have to educate our kids on how to use things appropriately. And I think this is a step in the right direction. It's not quite all need solved for them. I think the people that have done the gander bags will tell you they're effective to a point, but
044you're never going to get 100%. We need to be clear our expectations for our kids. I think we'll meet the expectations. And if they're not, there are consequences for that, but it should match what the expectations are. We can always reverse course. we can spend 60,000 bags, but there may be something else coming out that may be a better process. Bottom line is we want kids and staff to focus on learning and that's really where our emphasis should be. I think we're all in agreement on that our students, but I don't want to become this little guy on seniors protesting the cafeterias and never getting that cell phone away from me. Um, that's really not. We've got to find ways, you know, back years ago there were payoneses in high school. We offered payoneses and
045then we offered a phone booth. You know, we took the phone booth out because everybody had a cell phone. So, I don't want to go back building a phone booth, but there may be ways that we have to do that. My hope is that at some point in time we can figure out a way to communicate via the Chromebook um with parents. The starting point may be to allow a student to email with their parent. Right now, their emails are restricted to just self-help emails. We may be able to somehow figure that out. That's a technology issue that we want to deal with. But troubleshooting some of these things with our students and looking at it instead of saying, "How can we get around the rules?" What I hear in the underbags is like, "I'm
046bringing a burner phone. I'm taking it. I'm gonna So, they're they're circumventing the rules. The kids are smarter than we are. Good for them." and but let's let's work with them on solving the issues and then if it backfires we can always go back to okay restriction you know my my hope is that the large majority of our students are compliant and that's what we hope with any any rule or law know people are driving over 55 on the on the highway driven over 55 and you pull all over but the rules say 55 so we want to be compliant safety in this case it's a student cell phone distraction issue. But let's not take it out of the context of a kid actually went to their locker and looked at a text message, the
047world is not ending. But if they're doing it during an English uh regions exam, then there's an issue. We want to make sure they understand. You can't have it in testing location. You can't have it in classrooms. Um I wish the carve out allowed some flexibility with other things, but the good things are there are some carveouts for medical, there's carveouts for for other translation purposes. We're gonna have to work through what that looks like. I don't want everybody to have to go to the doctor and get a medical exemption. The doctors will usually October first month. We're able to do it with eighth graders. Thinking we can do it with ninth graders. We set that expectation at least consistent. Consistency is going to be key. So it doesn't fall to teacher A or teacher
048B because once we show our weaknesses the kids will exploit. We're allowing it in one class and not in another one that that uh principal enforcement and it can't just be about the high school principal and four grade level principles. There's only five of them total. They're outnumbered. So we need the enforcement from all the adults and and that's what the hope is. But yeah, let's let's get away from the teacher having to be the the bad guy. Let's make cell phones less of a focus and focus on good instruction classroom. I think a good start with the freshman would be that freshman orientation that they just know that don't bring it that's at all. So I mean it starts right there that four day or whatever it is and those few days and um
049and then um on the other hand as a as a parent um the changes to the day if I know that I was picking him up at at practice and that got diverted coaches after school teachers who do you know any kind of extra stuff they need to send that information out to you know they need to do a better the coaches, the after school coordinators to the parents that this has been changed, this has been up time. So, it's going to take a little work on everybody's part. Chris, one of the things that may come up and it's not written the way it is, but maybe there has to be a 10 minute and day break to allow for communication with parents and families. Nobody's going to die if you said we're going to
050build in five minutes or 10 minutes to communicate with families. We don't do it now because we never had to. and it's not written in the law because they probably didn't think about how this impacts state just the problem and trying to come up with a solution. But um hopefully we can work with our students on this with the result. I think we've done a pretty good job in middle schools. Um you know lockers are things that kids have access to whether they're using them or not. It's why we kind of look in the way of the backpack and being working like a locker. Um but at the same point in time students are being told and will be expected to not be pulling out during lunchtime. That's a new expectation. So that's going to
051take some time just like slowing down and zones. Got to reiterate. I know you mention that every single year we back in September. Please slow down follow the rules. Why do we do that? because people still we're lucky that we don't have that all 20 mph. I'm sure it's coming. Um I don't know what Chris was sharing about I think um the staff and teachers and coaches and whoever leveraging some of the parent square capabilities like I I only know of a couple staff members who have navigated parent well for example like created a group within that was for the theater right like I think so when I think about the training that the staff might need around the depth of how parent square works and how they can you know communicate on their behalf
052because while you know a kid can't necessarily in that moment without student sort of being what it is like their teacher can say hey I'm sending the message here we know staying at school today right like that is something that I think could help and additionally um what I'm assuming and again you correct that the teachers have not previously been asked to chart in asen students cell phones. So is that part of they don't typically fill out a paper referral. It would be the grade level principle. I think we did at one point in time we did try to go electronic and people found it more cumbersome to do that than the traditional paper soon. Yeah, we piloted it for a semester and uh the the problem with it is closing the loop because you
053never through that mechanism of Aspen you never see what happened or the actionable consequence and what how it was resolved in the back end. So it just caused even more turmoil at work and people think that things weren't resolved and they don't get their own light narrative. So it didn't do the full service that we wanted to. We can use the document at least when reports Vincent's got three violations. Um I'm just in in terms of the the policy the draft policy itself I I am wondering if we can't clearly state at the bottom of page two where it says additional consequences maybe are defined by policy level and the code of conduct if we can't make claim or more claim there that what we said earlier that the student may not be suspended directly
054for the cell phone infraction. However, if another, you know, violation of the code of conduct occurs in the context of that, something to just make that a little more plain. Um, there and then I'm just wondering, and this would not be specific to this policy, but just really with everything in the last paragraph around distribution is why our families or students whose first language is not English have to request the translational policy. Um, we certainly can. I think in most cases, um, we can through something post on our website. As long as we have the HTML, it can automatically translate. So, we can adjust that piece. Yeah, I mean I was just assuming that that was I mean I know the feature that when something's web based, right, that you can put up here and
055translate into whatever language you want, but anything that you're required to provide like distribute, we should be have that in a good suggestion. I think that um most of the time we have it on the website and that's our translation portion. I don't know if they're paper copies or translating, but we'll look at that. We also have to look at code of conduct and what piece of the code of conduct with cell phones and the consequences that we were at agenda item number 11, future meetings. Everyone's all right with that. Does anyone have any matter for executive session? Does anyone have any other matters to bring before the board this evening? Hearing none, I will take a motion to adjourn. Mr. Larby, second Mr. Casey. On the motion made by Mr. Larby, seconded by Mr.
056Casey that the regular meeting be adjourned. 5 658. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. 8 to zero. Thank you very much. early.