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District previews handbook changes: device ban, attendance targets and new fees
Summary
The Centerville-Abington school board reviewed planned changes to the academic handbook, including a state-mandated ban on student wireless devices during the school day with locker storage, an attendance policy tied to a 94% success indicator, and fee changes for new music offerings. The items will return for further action and accountability presentation.
The Centerville-Abington Com Schs board reviewed a package of curriculum and academic-handbook changes affecting all buildings, including program fees, course alignments, a new state-mandated wireless-device ban and a tighter attendance regime.
Presenters described a fee for a developmentally focused music program (Quaver) set at $280 per grade level and a sixth-grade guitar option priced at $395. Junior-high rotations will add a keyboarding course delivered through e-club.com (described as a free, spelling-based keyboarding program) and adjustments were made to align some computer science offerings so they do not duplicate high-school coursework.
Mr. Blue, who summarized the Indiana Online rules the board will formalize in the handbook, said the policy will limit students to a maximum of one Indiana Online course per semester to ensure they continue to receive classroom instruction and to preserve seat time needed for an AP Scholar with distinction. He said these online courses are also being preserved for students pursuing enlistment-seal diploma requirements or, rarely, for credit recovery through the district's other platforms.
Board presenters explained that a new state law requires students to store wireless devices during the school day; junior high will receive locker locks and elementary guidance directs students to keep devices in backpacks. "The devices are going to be expected to be placed in the lockers during the school day from 8 to 3," a presenter said, describing the district's planned operational steps to comply.
Attendance rules were adjusted to align with the state's accountability metric: a 94% attendance rate (which the presenter equated to roughly 10 days of absence) triggers a success indicator. The district will begin sending monthly attendance report cards to parents showing where students stand relative to that threshold and will issue intervention letters earlier (at three and six absences) than in the previous cadence. The presenter said administrators left building-specific details (tardy rules, truancy, makeup-work policies) in each school's handbook so principals can manage local needs.
None of the handbook items required a vote at this meeting; presenters said several items will return with more specifics. The board scheduled a fuller accountability presentation at an upcoming meeting to explain how the new state formulas will be applied and what the district will do to minimize negative effects on its schools.
