001Good morning and welcome to the special business meeting of July 21st, 2025. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It was nice this morning. It was only 60some degrees at my house. >> Beautiful. >> It's nice. >> Um my glasses didn't fog up when I left. Um so I'm going to open it up for public comment to any of the listed the single listed agenda item and there's no public here. So we're going to move on to number one. New business. >> Resolved on the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby conducts the first reading of the revisions of
002policy 5695, students in personal electronic devices, and further wave the second reading of the revisions to policy 5695, students in personal electronic devices. The board of education hereby adopts the revisions to policy 5695, students in personal electronic devices, and authorizes the revised policy to be placed in the policy manual. Second >> questions or comments? >> So, I'll provide some background on the policy. Obviously, this policy in is in response to Governor Hokll's uh banning of cell phones in schools. So, uh the district needed to meet with constituent groups including groups of parents, teachers, and students to develop to help inform this policy. And then it was handed over to the board. So, the board spent a significant amount of time working through the language and that was what's being presented to the community today. Um,
003obviously we need to have something in place by October 1st. It's not to say that this policy will not change moving forward. Uh, but this is certainly our first attempt to meet what the governor's demands are. I want to just clarify that just like cigarettes are banned and illegal, vaping is banned and illegal, cell phones are banned and considered illegal and will be handled in the same way in which those other substances were. So just as we would not allow a student to take out a cigarette, light it up in class, students will no longer be allowed to take out a cell phone and use it in class. and that's going to be a huge shift for our students and for our community. Um, but that's the law. So, we are uh obligated to comply
004with the law and that's the way our policy is written. So, um, just to prepare everyone for pretty substantial changes when it comes to students and use not just of cell phones but as well as tablets, smart watches, smart glasses, anything else that is able to connect to the internet all falls under this ban. Some of the concerns that are outlined in um the contract I mean the policy are ways in which parents can contact the schools. So all students um in middle school and high school have student emails that they may utilize throughout the school day or parents can contact the buildings through the main office email or phone school nurse email or phone. Contact building administration directly via email or phone or clinical staff members or psychologists, guidance counselors, social workers. Um, so
005there are some exceptions and if you read the policy, it outlines what some of those exceptions are. I won't go through them all, but obvious needs a device to monitor their own health um, in terms of tracking their glucose levels or something. There are exceptions that are allowed for that as well as some other circumstances. Each of those exceptions must include documentation and administrative approval. So, if you think you qualify for one of those exemptions, please contact your building administrator so we can start that process. Regarding enforcement, um, as I mentioned before, we wouldn't allow those other things that are illegal to be in our classrooms and nowhere allowed devices. So, we're asking that, um, all students keep their devices securely locked in a locker. All students have access to a locker. If you have
006to bring it to school, lock it in your locker before the school day and don't take it out until the end of the school day. If students are unable to do that, our first consequence will be um storing that device in a pouch. So that pouch locks. It'll stay with the student for the duration of the day, but the student will not be able to access the device out of the pouch until the end of the school day when they'll have to go to the main office and have the pouch unlocked. If it continues, uh our next step would be for the device to be taken away from the student and held for the duration of the school day. And finally, the device will be held until a parent or guardian is able to come
007pick it up. So, we know this is going to be a learning experience for all students to start the school year. Uh, but we will have our campus monitors walking around with pouches and if your phone's out, it's going in a pouch. Our classroom teachers will have access to them. If the phone's out, it's going in a pouch. Um, and we hope that if you insist on taking your phone out because it's not locked in your locker where it belongs, after it's locked in the pouch several times, um, hopefully the behavior begins to change. And um, obviously there's a clause in here about testing. Cell phones are not allowed anywhere in our testing areas. And then a mention of how the policy will be distributed. Obviously, there'll be communications coming out from the district and
008the buildings as we get to all of our back to school nights and that information. There'll be grade level meetings where administrators will talk directly to teachers and students, our superintendent's conference day. There'll be time allocated both by the union and the district to talk about these things. So, uh, we want to make sure everybody's aware of these expectations coming into the school year, um, so that they can prepare themselves, uh, to live a life without their cell phone in their hand, which I know will be a profound shift for many questions from the board. >> Jeremy, can you also go over the bill to bell that's required by this law? >> Yeah, so the state law is a bell to bell ban. So we're treating that to be from the first bell of the
009school day, so the beginning of first period to the last bell of the school day, which would be the dismissal bell. So it's inclusive of lunch period as well. There's no exemption for lunch period. So again, I would encourage all students to leave their device locked in the locker and to remove the temptation. If it's in your backpack, it's going to find its way into your hand. And if it's in your hand, it's going to find its way into the office where it'll sit until your parent or guardian has time to come pick it up at the end of the day. >> You know, it's unfortunate that uh the state again prescribes a a mandate to us without the full funding. >> Uh the cost of those pouches would have been what uh 40 $40,000,
010>> right? So, good point. I was reading that off. So, one of the things that we considered, and I know that our some of our teachers and administrators are strongly pushing for pouches for all, and it was something that we debated as a board, whether or not we wanted to move in that direction. And ultimately, a decision was made at a cost of $40,000 to outfit middle school and high schools with one pouch per student um is a financial burden to our taxpayers in our community. The state will allocate us1,2 sorry $8,153 is Putnham Valley's allocation of that $13 million they set aside. I think it's $10.91 per student in grade 7 through 12, which doesn't really help us. The devices, those pouches cost nearly $30 each, right? >> And it doesn't even account for
011our fifth and sixth grade students. So, um, with the decision was made to take all of that state money and to purchase as many pouches as we can without creating an additional financial burden on our community. Um, and it's and we're going to see how this first year goes. If if we decide that we don't have enough pouches or we need more and that's the direction we need to move in, then it'll give us time to properly budget for these things to make sure that the community is aware that this is in our budget. Right now, we'd be spending $32,000 that we simply never budgeted for. >> Well, that that >> law wasn't in existence when we did our budget. So, >> yeah. I mean, uh that could be a CSCA worker, $40,000 that it
012could be a, you know, money for substitute teachers. You know, the state does this all the time. They mandate things and they don't fund us properly and leave the onus to the community and it's it's just wrong. I like I like the idea of the cell phone ban. I don't like how the state presented it without the money to back it up. >> Well, and I'll just add that this is going to be like Dr. Luff said, this is like a huge shift for students and this is one of the times that I think the school and the parents or parental guardians need to work together. >> Absolutely. to help students um to support students in their this new normal. Um and and it's got to be a partnership, you know, it it really does
013because we need their support in terms of how important this is, how important the governor has made it for schools. >> Yeah. I mean, 25 years ago, we wouldn't have even had this conversation. >> Well, because affordable phones were big. Now we do. It's um I I would I know that we're going to um share this with families as best possible. One of the things that I would like to see uh if possible is for when the Google forms come out for secondary students uh to complete the code of conduct or for the parents rather to sign off on the code of conduct to sign off on the acceptable use policy. that there be um some additional information possibly for parents to be able to sign off on the fact that they have read this
014new policy and they fully understand the shift that's going to occur because the shift is significant and it it's basically creating a separate world in a school from the world in which we live outside of these walls, right? Um cell phones are an everyday for some people almost 24/7 thing. Um and and it's going to be a new world for our kids and for our families who rely on those cell phones to communicate with their children. So uh my my fear is that um there's maybe three people watching this meeting today. Um and I just want to make sure that we do our due diligence so that we start the year off right. What we don't want is students coming to school with their cell phones cuz parents and families perhaps didn't know and now
015we're dealing with a bunch of consequences for students that we didn't need to get into. So, however we can communicate that the better, >> right? And I like that, you know, it says, you know, we're going to spend the first week or so of school reinforcing this policy, right? You know, we don't want to schools does not do not want to be a police force. >> So, we're asking for support from students and parents >> to, you know, activate this policy. >> It's a transition and and it's going to be a huge one. Absolutely right, Barbara. Um, you know, and I'm certain the uh administration and the teachers, the instructors will do all they can to support it. And hopefully the parents will and the kids as well. >> Yeah. At the end of the
016day, this is in the best interest of students. >> Yeah. >> Regardless of how it's being done, it's in the best interest of students so that they can focus on what they need to focus on. These cell phones have put more of a burden on students than they were ever meant to bear. Absolutely. >> Um, and I I think it will be for the good. Um, but as Dr. Love said, I think it's important to reiterate that this is the first version of this policy. We have to live it. Um, and I think that we're doing that from a temporal stance, which I think is really wonderful. I, you know, some people are not doing anything at all. Some people are, you know, spending $40,000. Um, and I think we're doing this in a very
017reasonable fashion where we're ed, you know, easing our districts into this, um, through buying some pouches and seeing how the pouches work. You know, we could buy $40,000 worth of pouches and them not make a difference if they're not properly enforced. And so, we have to ensure that we're all working together um to make this policy come to fruition, again, in the best interest of students. To your point, Barbara, I don't want to see our our staff and our administrators um policing all day. That is not their job. Their job is to educate. And so, we have to figure out the balance of how how to make sure that that can that that balance can be delicately taken. >> Well, the fact that uh we are buying, you know, some pouches for the the repeat
018offenders, right? >> I I think that's very wise and and that's good. That that certainly will set the >> the tone. >> Yep. Hopefully. Okay. >> Any other comments? >> Okay. Uh, all in favor? >> I I >> opposed. Abstensions. The resolution passes. Um, members of the public, we have one public person here. You have anything you'd like to say? No. Okay. Um, upcoming meetings, we our next meeting is August >> 21st. Um, enjoy the cooler weather. Um uh any other board member comments? Oh, okay. Um I'd like a motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? All in favor? >> I >> Goodbye. Enjoy the rest of the