With a new school year coming up, the Carroll Community School District (CCSD) Board of Education and administration discussed the current cell phone policy during Monday’s meeting and whether there was a need to update or create a new one. The topic arose because several schools in the Rolling Valley Conference moved to a zero-tolerance policy, meaning phones will not be allowed to be on students in the school building during school hours. Board members asked the principals if the policy needed an update or if it worked the way things were. Elementary principals reported having no issues, as a small portion of students have a personal device they bring to school. Carroll Middle School Principal Scot Aden says cell phone usage among students does pick up in the middle school building, but their current system is working.
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Aden says that if a student is caught with a phone, it is taken away, and the student can pick it up at the end of the day. On the second offense, it is taken to the office, and the student must serve a 30-minute detention. On the third offense, it is a 60-minute detention, and a parent needs to pick up the device from the office, which only happened on one occasion to a student the entire year. High School Principal Kourtney Abbotts says cell phone use is more frequent at the high school level.
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A verbal warning is given to the high school student if using a cell phone during class. Next, the device will be placed in a bag and set on the student’s desk until the end of class, with the device being taken to the office if the student remains noncompliant. Additional consequences include detention, loss of technology privileges, and suspension, depending on the degree of infraction. Abbotts says high school staff agree that cell phones must remain out of the classroom to protect the instructional minutes of a class period.
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Nothing has been officially decided on yet. The administrative staff would like to meet with teachers at each building to get more feedback on what they want done about cell phones. The Board of Education plans to discuss this topic at the next school board meeting on Aug 19.