001okay it is March 27 2025 at 5:02 p.m. we're going to start this subcommittee meeting on policy and management I'll call this meeting to order we'll start with the pledge allegiance I know K's not here but we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance we have a flag this time okay right hand over our heart ready again I pledge to the flag the United States of America to the for it stands na God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right you have any public comments so this meeting we're going to review the stuffy I don't know Dr you want to leave us on that I'm not to familiar with this one started well um as far as far as policy 131.8 of course I'll defer to my wonderful team um and Dr Chamberlain you
002know working with principles and trying to preface you know policy working with the principles uh um discussing cell phone use on their campuses primarily secondary right High Desert as well as Vasquez um could be problematic universally not just for our district and secondary students but for all secondary students as far as you know potential disengagement in classrooms um so you know heightened language for mobile communication devices um new policies that will take effect starting next year but we we're looking to get ahead of you know policy enact policy on our campus is when applicable um so with that um I'll turn it over to both Jackie and toala as far as um you know this policy some of the updates how how would it pertain to us and then within our immedia team you know
003what measures we were taking and what discussions we're having um in collaboration with our principles um in terms of you know adhering to the new policy ahead of time for fall of 25 potentially um in terms of mitigating some of that disengagement that could come along with cell phone use by our students thank you Dr s so CS csba came up with a new policy reg uh proposal it was they just did it March 1st of 25 and one of the big things is they're offering two options for the districts to adopt as far as how we're going to do our cell phone policy so option one is students may use smartphones or other mobile communication devices on campus during non-instructional time as long as the device is utilized in accordance with law and any
004applicable school rules so they could use it when they're outside of the classroom option two is students shall not use smartphones or mobile Communications devices while at school side are under the supervision and control of a district employee so they would not be allowed to use the phones at all the exception to both options is if there's a student that for a medical reason needs to have that phone because it monitors their health that's different so that's the exception to both options so the question becomes which option do we feel would be best for the students this is our old policy right this is our 5131 this was in 22 on the one that's on the show yeah yeah I was going over it last night see some of the differences were this though a
005we do have to pick something because this will go into effect for next school year I will tell you just as an update High Desert already does option two basus does option one so those those are already in place um and the focus from the state was on student heal health because kids being on their phone a lot just distracts them from school but just being on that many numbers of hours now research is showing That's not healthy for students so that's this that's been the main reason that there's a lot of research that supports that um Los Angeles County um or Los Angeles un High School District had a a pretty good comprehensive um presentation that they did that I would but if the board's interested you know at a later time I would
006share more but that's the preface and premise for bringing forth this new bill so tell me tell me uh what this looks like at the different schools and what kind of kickback getting from students and parents well High desert's actually had this in in this um the option one the more restrictive option two the more restrictive as long as Miss D AR's been there it may have been prior to that um I discovered that a couple of years ago and when the teachers wanted to do this do something similar uh it seemed like a pretty easy kind of transition because the eighth graders coming into high school already can't use them so but we did still continue to allow students to use the phones um during like passing during nutrition and during lunchtime um and
007that's at High Desert as well High Desert not at all they don't allow them to use them in lunchtime they don't allow them to use them they don't allow students to use their phones at all so if you're at if you're on campus and you have your phone out they're going to they're going to either give you the initial warning it's Progressive discipline right and then it I don't know if they do one or two but they give you a warning and then at some point they will confiscate it and give it to you at the end of the school day and they document so you we counsel you if that doesn't work then they call parents and have parents pick it up so they haven't had a lot of push back from parents on
008that um we've never had a call I have never had a call at the district office related to that okay so so there hasn't been a parent saying look this is ridiculous this is my right this is modern times is because in my world um I would have been at high desert in 1972 I would not have gone up and went out in the hallway and called someone on the pay phone or went in the principal's office and just you know picked up my phone hey dude you know I so I can relate to the idea behind it um so you're not aware of any challenges to this that that someone has actually said hey you know know what my rights have been violating it no so what does this look like in the high
009school now so with the high school the kids are pretty good about it we don't get a lot of parent push back in the beginning when we first did it and that was two years ago um there was a little it was more um our staff not boundaries as far as let's be consistent on the rules we're not taking phones we're not going into your backpacks we're not making you because the idea was what teachers wanted do was have kids put them in Pockets which in the classrooms which the school provided and some teachers do that and it goes really well um other teachers will allow students to keep them in the backpack so we had to really clarify as Leaders on on the campus that you know kids can keep them in their backpack
010they can keep them on their person as long as they don't have them out that has gone pretty well it's we don't get complaints about it um kids are for the most part compliant um we do still though allow them or at this point they still are allowed to have them at lunchtime and and nutrition okay a couple things um kids that are using um support devices that aren't specifically what I'm thinking of communication Aid so someone could actually be using a cell phone to talk is there any of that going on not that I'm aware of however I'm not aware of like we do have some students with special needs that sometimes do have devices and under the law they're allowed to have devices they're also so if their IP if it's written into
011their IP then they there would be that exception they also is an exception in the event of an emergency so if there was an emergency at on school campus you can't you cannot deny a student there right to their phone so when the phones are are collected if there was something going on outside the phones are remaining in the room there is no collection of phones at the beginning of the day and then at the end of the day at this point there's not there has been some discussion of using Yonder packets which would the kids would still have them but they wouldn't have the access to open them in an emergency though they could be allowed to open them because the access is on campus they like have access keys in the classroom I
012think it's my I haven't used but I saw it's a pouch it's a pouch La USD has implemented those and we just had a um a vendor vendor meeting um and they demonstrated Yer and how it's actually implemented you know that it's a pouch the kids will put in their cell phone into the pouch for the day and then there's a there's a magnet um let's say in the classroom or magnets that let say at the exits and they will'll go ahead and just open that um pouch up and then have access after dismissal so let me we're looking into that as well it's just preliminary discussions of how to actually safely score your so let me ask you this I've seen some kids react to their phone being taken away almost like they've lost
013a person or or something like that so can anybody explain to me the psych the psychological or the behavioral issues that play behind that kind of reaction sort of there's something on the phone that shouldn't be there there's going to be something discovered somebody but I I've seen this and it's almost like a withdrawal or or am I just kids get attached sorry I was gonna say I like your term of it's almost like a withdrawal because really it they're so used to having it and having access to it 247 that it's like they're almost missing a limb if they don't have it with them where if we go with for example what we were looking into Yonder they don't have the access but it's not like they're losing their phone they still have it
014in their backpack and again in an emergency they can unlock it pull it out from the behavioral standpoint do you think these policies help avoid that kind of because I would almost describe it as addiction it has been described that like when I mentioned the research there's a lot of research that that there's enough research now that the state stepped in and created this bill and it was approved and a lot of it is based on Research that you're alluding to so what there are finding is when kids are off their phones they're they're healthier they're more engaged they're more engaged with people there's less behaviors there's less bullying because there's a lot of bullying unfortunately being done on social media and kids are partaking in that during school I mean you'll see kids on
015their phones in groups looking at stuff and we can't be like always you know right up there in their business I mean that would be not really respectful of our students Paul as an educator how long do you know of any patterns that say a first grader is going to come in the room and I'm going to spend the first X minutes trying to get them to sit down and get get ready to learn and is there something that says that gets better on its own as kids get older well most of the research supports teaching kids routines at all ages and reteaching kids routines during the school year I mean even ourselves we have to self-manage our routines as well so does it come intuitively for some kids but majority no it needs to
016be reinforced that's what I that's what I would say that's part of the first two weeks of school where you're teaching the kids the routines and what the expectation is and like you said every once in a while you have to refresh your memory so when it all comes down to it and inappropriate things and and just not following rules and stuff is the nature of this really to support um Maxim maximize focused learning in the classroom yes this is not a security Big Brother thing no so tell me what protections are in place whether the phone is in the person's hand or not for people to do inappropriate searches and pull up inappropriate things uh in a on a phone in the district is there anything in place that would stop that not under
017your own personal device okay so the way to assure it is to make sure that there's not uh access to the phones during learning time does Staff feel that a more restrictive Approach at high school is is warranted in other words the behaviors we're seeing um I'm I'm supposing that there's uniformity in the staff approach to what the policy is majority of Staff of the first students didn't have didn't have their phones out and when we started doing that at Basquez the staff that was consistent reported kids were much more engaged as it relates to during lunchtime I I would say from a behavior standpoint sometimes you know phones have been used so much with social media and fighting that sometimes fights get instigated because of because now I can film you and it becomes
018a thing and so in in incident in incidents where we have had like mutual combat where there was no filming it it was it was at a much level lower level of even like harm like the fight wasn't even as bad where sometimes where there's been we're onv videotaping you and pretty soon I get we get you separated and all of a sudden someone else is doing it because someone has a phone and they're kind of egging you on and then that person actually sometimes it's suspended too because now they're they're they're causing it they're I forget what the word is in Ed code but it's actually suspendable so in that way not having F at lunchtime probably would be a benefit situation yes so it becomes more about the the footage than than the
019confrontation yeah I think the footage the actions to aggravate the actual fight itself I know in my line of work people want attention and the way to get that of course through social media and all kinds of stuff so that I could see that happening a lot oh it does and we've had situations where we had an incident that happened pretty quickly in a classroom they didn't have their phones and so one it ended up being a very minimal um it was a little more than a scuffle we called that more of a fight like actually don't was the one one person said something very inappropriate and the other student was upset and hit the kid that that called him a name but it ended right there where a lot of times when there's phones
020it it escalates I I think my question is best for the chair and I don't want to put you on the spot but do you see anything coming where it says if you are filming a fight and broadcasting it that there's going to be some level of penalty for you there is right which you mentioned I think already there is some type of uh penalty for that I know there is for posting something like that a fight not sure for us there's not for you there may be right I think I think I've seen it where I haven't dealt with myself but I think I've seen there is some type of charge or criminal misconduct to do that I think I think that it came down with the bullying all the bullying acts that came
021down something like that but I would have to look into that so if I were to call law enforcement in support on a fight and say that I learned about it or it was being uh generated throughout the community and there was something that was egregious the fighting is egregious and and I ask for your support in your investigation it would strike me that the first thing you'd asked for is does the policy uh encourage this type of thing I that would one questions okay ask okay all right thank you I'm good sorry real quick the you mentioned the I some students with IEPs may be able to have their cell phones how will that be due to other students that say Hey this person has a cell phone out you're not doing anything now
022are they inclined to say hey well you're putting the kid on the spot no it's because I have certain conditions you know I don't know how that how many how many do we actually deal I don't think we have any at all and that's probably pretty rare I've never seen that accommodation in but happen but with that said you know students are aware that some students have the options to take a break from class they even sometimes I might not leave the class but my accommodation would be that I can take a break inside class uh kids know that I I will say the same time most teachers accommodate that for all students not only for students with special needs if you need a break take a break so a phone would definitely probably be
023different because we wouldn't it wouldn't be extended we don't have any stud students that have um have never really actually heard that asked for but they do have they would have their right are we looking at one policy for all schools or each or each school is going to be able to choose their option it be the same so whatever which one was that I think Vasquez is the number one right correct so if we if we were to adopt one of these in other school one of the schools have to change what about metal art it's not so it's not really an issue at elementary school which is kind of nice kids put their SC some of them do not as many but they don't get yeah they're in their backpacks the only thing
024that I would like to balance is the need for parents to communicate whether that's you can't be on your phone looking at videos on this option one or you can't be calling people but a chance to say hey do I got to text with my parents okay no put it away now if you see somebody just using it you know in violation of whatever policy we create that' be something different but I do like the fact that I can send my daughter a message and say hey I'm running late or something's happening you know or whatever it may be that she can look at it during her break and say oh okay and I putli my phone away you know I mean we we we're advancing in technology you know you know we didn't have
025I didn't have a phone I was in school my mom used to give me a secret code if someone else was picking me up they didn't have that password you know don't go with them right but we have the technology now so I I would like a balance between hey can I check my messes for my parents and put it away for instructional purposes that's what I'm looking for I don't know what option one right it' be option one it very much you know well we can also adapt from this right we can say you know you can't be watching certain things you can't have you know you can check messages only takes a couple seconds to check messages that's really hard to monitor though and it's hard for me to say you were checking
026message but you were on a video that in itself we're probably not going to do that because that in itself can open up that could look like we're discriminating that could look like we're picking on certain kids I guarantee you when kids and if they I mean they haven't lunch now it's not a huge issue but um I can guarantee you some kids are not going to comply I mean it it would be really hard like come over at lunch it' be really hard to monitor you'd have to be up almost in Student Business you know what I mean then I think I'm more inclined for the option one instead of eliminating it totally say hey you know what you're blocked until the end of the day here's what I think I'm and it's Ken
027and only Ken says some things I think there's a correlation between laying on your parents couch at 30 years old and not being employed uh I think the purpose of education is to prepare kids for other education advancing education and at some point to be self-sufficient homeowner taxpaying productive citizen of a community that's what I think education is about it's not a playtime and I think the district's current policy encourages people to be responsible as they would you would not put it someone driving a car at metalark um Tammy had a communication device for her IEP she refused to use it for anything everything other than communication she like to use sign language but I think that when we start getting into high school and limiting behaviors uh completely it it doesn't um I don't
028think it supports natural maturation and the ability to self-monitor and be productive so um you know I'm going to ask for what the superintendent's recommendation is and and I would say that we should be prepared to have a robust discussion about this I think it's been on the agenda already correct tonight yes this one's a first read is it the first read I'm pretty sure okay oh we need I I can remember something being up last time yeah there was student use Tey techology technology this is something completely different yeah I would be ready um I don't know that we need to do a presentation but I would be ready for some board discussion um if I were the board president when it comes to this I'm expecting more and more as these subcommittees roll
029into the future that when there are action items the president whoever it is that year would turn and say do I have a recommendation from the subcommitte because that's where the work gets done and you will find in subcommittee meetings that if staff is bringing stuff that the subcommittee can't support I don't expect that when the president asks the subcommittee to subcommittee would pretend that um no everything's wonderful let's all start over I think two vot two people saying this isn't ready for prime time should be an indicator at this level that additional work needs to be done before it's put in front and that at that time I think the subcommittee would say some of the issues that we discussed and considered with this this and this put the mey stuff out there letting
030the public know your rights uh what's good for kids has been thoroughly discussed and considered and then at that point you Loop through into board discussion and some of these controversial policies you know we've got um newspaper support here and I love what the newspapers been doing uh lately everything is just it is this it is this and and here's the the 30,000 foot level of of discussion that I think the community needs uh to hear from the media so thank you media for that but um so staff recommendation would be what but we're looking for a consistent policy for all schools particularly secondary high desert and Vasquez um you know there'll be some acclamation for high desert if we move forward for 2526 with option number one of course um that'll just have come
031with you know during unstructured time the nutrition lunch phones are out um addition supervision reiteration of policy what the rules are expectations are that'll you know fall onto a high desert you I say all this to say so option one will go ahead and still restrict um cell phone use use in the classroom helps to you know um heightened engagement with instruction and learning um while not really constricting our students to zero cell phone use for the entire instructional day so I would say option one and then High Desert you know if that's where the board collectively decides to move High Desert will just um you know reiterate some revised policy with reinforcement of expectations is it a requirement by the the county or the state thatb all schools so if it's not a requirement
032we can also develop a policy that like you said there's different phases in life that can you know be appropriate for a certain age but yeah if we're looking for consistency I would say option one if we're looking for let's say that that gradual progression to let's say um having that cell phone use from 9 through 12 then we can differentiate between option one and two it doesn't have to be the same 12 so I wouldn't be surprised if someone were to ask during Open Session discussion what the current policy looks like on a practical level and then it's describe and um what the successes are and um I think that the board has the ability that when things start popping up to say uh I think that we should revisit this and and and
033take a look at the more restrictive option as it becomes necessary is what I would think do we know what some of other districts around here are doing or some of the bigger ones well Los Angeles Unified what they actually did allow schools to make choices within even how they were going to um whether they were do to do option one or two and also how if they were use Yonder if they were going to use Pockets or they're going to let kids keep them they gave sites they because you know each site kind of has its own culture if you will you know and so they wanted to they they let that to the sites so and I mean I wouldn't be opposed to having both options only because I know at High Desert
034it does work there there's not a lot of push back I don't know if it's because they come as fifth graders so it's not already a big deal for fifth and sixth grade so by the time you get to seventh it's just their their practice is but I mean we've all been there several times I've never seen a cell phone or even saw a student like push against that um and I imagine there are times because you've had kids there where kids are they find a way to like text you back um because they do have the option and you know kids they're smart they're you know they're I'm sure it's not perfect is what I'm saying but as far as just blatant or I've never seen one in class you know we're in the
035high school there is more push back it comes more from the kids than the parents um and so I do think perhaps giving them some autonomy during lunchtime and helping them learn to self-control is an important skill for them to have and I think based on what they've been doing I think they're moving in the right direction with that and and just recently we we went to visit um Vasquez Tuesday we me some classroom visits and you know um at start of the period without mentioning classroom specifically or teachers you know some some of the teachers in their classrooms had the pockets on the pouches you know hung on the wall as students were just walking in and just dropping them in without even being you know directed to or you know having it re
036re reiterated and then some I didn't see Pockets but students were coming in you know I didn't see the cell phones I know that before it used to be problematic but they were in their backpacks my assumption um I didn't see cell phones out and about or even on the desk Yeah we actually really didn't usually I see a couple but we didn't this time which again tells me kids are becoming more just used to the um not necessarily compliant but just more respectful of the rule and again a lot of it has to do with how our how our adults in the classroom reinforce that and so and I know like I know Dr Smith at Vasquez has been really you know reminding teachers when it wasn't like if if you start to see
037which I had to do that too but it looks like that's really really getting better so yeah that is true if we didn't see any and just for the record for the subcommittee um since being recorded on page two of the cell phone policy we're talking about discipline earlier and so just kind of going through some of the language on page two um there there's a section on when when you know use of mobile communication device is unauthorized well if it's used in an unauthorized manner student may be disciplined there's a section on bullying um and then so you refer to BP 5132 31.2 for bullying um students may be subjected to discipline when you know a mobile communication device um or activity on poses a threat or danger to uh safety of students or
038staff um or disrupts school activities um so if there's a student who's you know after school hours even texting and saying heyet me after school my friends are going to meet you and back or whatever for a fight and then the fight actually um doesn't happen but you are causing A disruption students are talking and and um anxieties caused on on the campus students can be subjected to or the originator of that test could be Tex could be subjected to uh discipline so it's nice to see where you know all of these components of what really kind of transpires on campuses um at all districts are still embedded in the language um for Progressive discipline just want to make that any more comments move to a future meeting agenda items I know you mentioned a
039few great proposals I'd like to propose it's four different board those all go [Music] together so that first one I gave you is emergency and disaster preparedness um the the district one that we have in place right now was board approved in 200 five the current one from csba is 2024 so that's why I'm proposing that we look at that this one is bomb threats and this one is board approved as of 20 19 csba is 2022 we have earthquake emergency procedures we had it board approved in 2005 the latest is from 2016 from csba and last one I am proposing is emergency schedule this one is from 2025 from csba ours is not that old it's from 2023 but there are some changes sorry I was on my cell phone addicted to texting some
040of these are the old ones right I gave the old ones and then the new proposals from csba is what I gave okay so okay see this is what I'm proposing that we discuss um at the next meeting with your permission if you're in agreement here's what I would say anything that involves like a physical feature that involves a policy that has to do with earthquake or evacuation I would make a quick stop at the uh Finance facilities committee first oh okay anything that involves something like you make a bomb threat you stage something you pause something anything that would be involving discipline or um the need to bring in legal anything like that but I would just make a quick stop at the facilities and finance committee on anything that involves an actual evacuation
041plan that would cause them to take a look and and and open it up and have staff or the facilities director say yeah I don't see anything in here that would stop us from being able to comply with this and then because I will ask that question when it HS here I don't know what your schedule looks like with them um do you do you know in the next 20 yes it's the last Tuesday in April so we have some time to actually plan and get that on the agenda okay I want to say April 27th okay so I had listed as for the uh the next uh policy and management subcommittee meeting next board meeting because we only have the one in April which is April 10th so you tell me if you want
042to wait until we go to the finance and Facilities first and so we push this out for the first board meeting in U May before the board meeting we meet that works for me also these are directly related to school safety right which is to which means I have to incorporate all this into a plan so I don't know if we can just align it all because I would want to read through of these because a lot of times have changes that require us to make updates corre so it's always really important to me that the associations aren't being given stuff that they haven't had the opportunity to say okay we're going to ultimately be the ones that have to deal with a change in policy or the enforcement policy so I like these meetings
043or when I say outside is there been input from the association I'm not trying to make everything a union issue or something that needs to be negotiated app it but I do believe it's good to portray that the employees aren't just having somebody like me up here just going yeah that sounds cool and pushing it down on them I I've never been a fan of that a communication pie and we talk about the school safety because each School creates their own safety plan in in collaboration with their with their teams so that's how but we that's how it gets kind of spread out the School site but we if we have to make changes to the comprehensive safy plan that we have a committee that does that that also ask schite people on it then
044they show that that's kind of how we trickle down um would it be possible to add bullying and sexual harassment to say I'm not sure when we last updated only because those are cross referenced in the suspension one that I believe is on the board for um for vote tonight oh I think it's on for second read so if you go through and read the suspension and expulsion the regulations these are cross referenced I just want to make sure okay and I don't know the DAT so the the idea I had in these subcommittees the first year I think everybody was kind of thinking okay well the education sub we talking about you know what's in this book or something like that I think where our success was was you cannot be educated if you
045do not feel safe so the facilities went through looked and said Okay so we've had some some projects come out of that that have hit the budget and I've been fighting um and any resistance there is to kind of blend everything and make the facility Improvement that encourages step one safety to be pulled out and in the interest of something else so I'm happy because it basically says the subcommittee work was we're going to tell the education side of the house we're going to do everything we can to make sure that the classrooms and are safe your kids are safe and that you're safe then the education subcommittee came in with uh which I think surprised a lot of people do our hiring practices and how do our staff policies ensure that we got good
046people that you can trust and they're delivering good material that's appropriate to the students of this district and I think making that statement was very important and when it gets up here if there's something that needs to be twitched to ensure that the work of the other two subcommittees is valid um you got two people here that believe in law abidance I guarantee you that so um is there anything else that would cause you to have something to discuss at the meeting you wanted to have in March you mean in April yeah I'm lost um well if you want because you brought it up that it's if you want to discuss the bullying and the sexual harassment one at the next meeting yeah yeah that would be a good one that would be a good
047one I don't see that there's a reason for the other sub commmittee have to be involved in those two so that we could I think that's a good idea all right so I will have those for the April 10th meeting yes um so that we can discuss those and then I will take the earthquake one to the finance committee when they meet in April and I'll read through it and just let you know if there's anything that we need to um submit it at Ed because Ed sub commmittee and student Support Services kind of overlap they kind overlap which is kind of cool I always like how groups work together um I because you share these with me I'll I have a I think I read all the ones from last time okay so else
048if I can make a comment thank you both for your expertise thank you for siming out um policies that really have to do with student safety I think those are um quite imminent and time sensitive so thank you for doing that I think the subcommittee system if it's understood by staff there not a means for us up here who are neop fites and what it is you do to be asking questions and know you know be the change agent I think this is an opportunity to showcase the professionalism of Staff in a way that normally wouldn't get done with that thank you so much and I will adjourn this meeting at uh 542