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Port Washington BOE narrows student device rule, removes high-school locker requirement
Summary
After debate over stakeholder input and implementation, the Port Washington board amended Policy 5695 to prioritize student backpacks over lockers at the high-school level; the change passed so the district could meet an August 1 deadline.
The Port Washington Union Free School District Board of Education voted July 8 to amend Policy 5695 (students and personal electronic devices), removing an "and/or locker" reference for the high school and leaving backpacks as the specified storage option for now.
Board members spent extensive time debating the wording and the process that produced it. One trustee urged caution about the timing, saying the full policy committee did not have an opportunity to review the late edit and that stakeholder input appeared uneven. Another trustee said the change was a small word-order edit and administrative input indicated it was not material to how the policy would be implemented.
Interim Superintendent Dr. Chris Shields told the board the drafted change prioritized lockers over backpacks but maintained implementation flexibility: "We wanted to emphasize that locker is the priority and the preference," he said, adding that building-level stakeholders would decide how to apply the policy. He also said the district lacks sufficient lockers to assign one per high-school student, which informed the discussion.
A board member who opposed the stronger locker requirement argued in part, "I think students need to learn how to live productive lives with technology as a helper and an assistant, not create a false sense of not having the technology," urging caution about blanket restrictions for older students.
The board first tested a motion to adopt the version that retained locker language; that motion failed. Members then voted to strike the words "and/or locker" from the high-school provision so the rule reads as storage in students' backpacks; two members announced abstentions on that vote. Trustees said the change can be revisited by the policy committee and adjusted, including a potential return to lockers if practical.
The adoption was framed as meeting a statutory or regulatory deadline: the board noted it must have a policy in place by Aug. 1 and elected to pass the amended language now and refine implementation details later. The board also directed staff to align the code of conduct with the new policy and to return with a tiered-consequence structure to ensure consistency between documents.
Public comment included a representative of the Port Washington Teachers Association urging the board to "make a change to this and put locker back in" before school begins. Trustees said they would continue work with building stakeholders and the policy committee ahead of the start of the school year.
The board concluded the discussion by confirming it had met the deadline while leaving room for further committee review and local implementation planning.
