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Board adopts cell-phone policy and approves routine consent items including trips, handbooks, appointments and personnel
Summary
The Lebanon board approved policy 5.136 curbing cell-phone use during instructional time, granted multiple consent items (financial donations, overnight trips, handbooks, calendar), appointed Mike Goliati to the CAC committee, issued a diploma and approved a multi-page personnel slate.
At its July 15 meeting the Lebanon City Board of Education voted to adopt policy 5.136, a district-wide personal-communication-device policy that staff said will be most felt at the high school.
District staff explained the policy applies to K–12 but the change next year will primarily affect high school students: cell phones will be allowed before school, after school and during lunch but must be kept in lockers or bags during instructional periods. “Cell phones are gone,” a staff presenter said in describing the policy's intent to reduce classroom distraction. The board approved the policy by roll call.
The board also approved multiple routine consent items in a single vote: financial items (including donations and transfers), five overnight out-of-state student trips (athletics), 24 handbooks spanning student and staff materials and sports, and the 2025–26 school calendar (which staff said matched a staff-survey-preferred option). The business office reported an athletic-boosters donation of $17,000; the board thanked donors.
In governance votes the board appointed Mike Goliati to the CAC committee, approved issuance of a Lebanon High School diploma to Dustin Joseph Bennett after staff confirmed he satisfied Ohio Department of Education and district requirements, and approved a long personnel slate (resignations, hires pending background checks, supplemental-pay lists, volunteer approvals, substitutes, interpreter services, and stipends). All listed motions passed by roll call as recorded in the meeting.
What happens next: staff said they will communicate the new cell-phone policy, reissue device-monitoring notices to families, and continue implementing the approved personnel and program items. No additional public deliberation was recorded for these consent items during the meeting.
