RSU 09 board details task force to study high-school cell phone policy

The Education Policy Committee27s resolution to form a task force on high-school cell phone use will move forward with local implementation, members said at the RSU 09 school board meeting. The group is to include two administrators, one teacher, one support-staff member, two board members, two parents and two students and aims to present policy recommendations by January.

Speaker 8 outlined the committee composition and timeline, saying the committee27s deadline is January and that he hoped the work could finish sooner. "It's come quite obvious to many of us that we need a cell phone policy here at the high school," Speaker 8 said.

Speaker 3 said administrators will solicit volunteers and advertise for parent involvement for a few weeks, and encouraged student participation: "When it talked about students involved in this, it would be great if a couple of our board member students could help be, you know, part of this suggestion...to get input." The superintendent27s office materials and examples from other districts will be shared with the committee to inform discussion.

Discussion at the meeting framed the task force27s work around two central questions: whether the district should emphasize teaching students to use technology and build critical thinking skills, or whether stricter enforcement of existing rules is the better path. Speaker 3 said existing policies might be sufficient if consistently enforced, but the group would need to "wrestle with" enforcement versus instruction.

Next steps: administrators will advertise for volunteer members, the Ed Policy Committee will seek participants, and the committee will work toward the January deadline for delivering proposed policy language or recommendations to the board.