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Board to await governor's cell-phone law before finalizing school policy; administrators to operationalize recommendations
Summary
Pelham administrators described ongoing high-school study of cell-phone use and said the board will formalize any changes in policy after the governor's final law is issued. The district's committee has reviewed surveys, literature and interim measures and will bring operational recommendations to policy committee.
District administrators told the Pelham Union Free School District Board of Education on April 22 that a high-school committee has been studying cell-phone use and potential restrictions throughout the academic year and will return recommendations for operationalizing a phone policy.
Administrators said the committee has reviewed research (including The Anxious Generation), surveyed students and staff, monitored effects of interim changes this year, and explored options ranging from limited rules to "bell-to-bell" restrictions (interpreted variously as per-class period or whole school-day restrictions). The superintendent said the board's goal was moving "towards as much of a phone free environment as possible." The committee will provide recommendations on how to operationalize the approach; the board expects to revisit policy after the governor's final bill or law is issued since state law would supersede local board policy.
What the board can expect next: Staff said administrators will operationalize committee recommendations, bring them to the policy committee for revision of existing policy, and then present the revised policy to the full board for a vote. Trustees asked for clarity on whether the committee's work would result in policy or operational guidance; staff said the current plan is for the committee to outline operational steps and then have policy committee memorialize any required policy changes. The timing depends on the final state law, which administrators said remained outstanding and was one item holding up the state budget at the time of the meeting.
Quotations and context: The superintendent said the district is "waiting to see what the governor's bill finally looks like," and noted that the board's policy will be updated to reflect any statutory changes. The board discussed that if the state law is very restrictive ("bell to bell"), local discretion may be limited; if it is more permissive, the district could adopt a stricter local approach and then vote to codify it.
Outcome: No formal vote on policy was taken; the board instructed staff to proceed with the committee's operational recommendations and to return to policy committee and the full board once the state's guidance is finalized.
