Policies targeting cellphone ban, attendance proposed at East Union

AFTON - Cellphones in school could see a ban across the state of Iowa, with East Union preparing for the scenario.

Proposed student handbook changes at East Union, some partially pushed forward due to new state legislation, were discussed during Monday’s regular school board meeting. Presented by secondary principal Jason Riley, these changes include potential bans on cellphones, graduation requirements, conduct and attendance records.

No changes to the handbook were approved on Monday, but detailed explanations for proposed changes were given by Riley.

The policy change which sparked the largest discussion was around a cellphone ban, despite no language being proposed at East Union for a change yet. Riley noted how most school districts are waiting for model policies from the Department of Education before making any policy decisions.

The law targeting cellphone disruption was introduced by Governor Kim Reynolds and is expected to be signed after passing both the House and the Senate. The ban would not apply to students with an Individualized Education Program or 504 plan, which requires cellphone access.

School districts can decide the extent of the policy as well as areas where access can be given temporarily. East Union Board President Adam Tallmon noted if the district were to force cellphones to remain in student lockers, locks would have to be installed on all lockers for additional security.

Cellphones aren’t the only item limited by Iowa legislation. Each school would need to decide definitions and exceptions for any personal electronic device. East Union’s board expected to only give students access to their school-provided Chromebooks.

Riley noted he didn’t have a preference on how strict the cellphone ban would be, whether the district were to choose to restrict them fully during class time or allow them access during passing periods or during lunch hours. Riley also said a full ban during the school day could be easier to enforce for the district. Either way the district chooses to go, Riley had confidence in East Union students following the ban.

“Our kids are going to adapt,” Riley said. “Whatever we choose to do, we have good kids. They’re going to do what we ask them to do. There’s going to be a learning curve; we’re going to have to fight it pretty hard in the beginning, but it’s no different from tardy students.”

Changes on attendance targeted student tardiness, with Riley saying the old guidelines weren’t enforced. Unexcused tardy periods will give clearer punishments to students. A 30 minute detention will be given after three tardy periods and an hour detention at six. Subsequent detentions will give notice to the building administrator who will decide punishments up to an in-school suspension.

Riley noted how the district has had a favorable year of progress in reducing student tardiness. He favored the progress to a change of mindset between students and teachers.

“There’s not more than a couple of kids that hit six [tardy periods],” Riley said.

Period attendance was noted for having precise areas where students are consistently late, specifically the first period of the day where a student might not arrive to school on time and the period after lunch when some students leave campus.

Riley proposed similar action as the chronically absent changes applied to this school year, treating repeated absenteeism of specific periods as chronic. East Union’s school-based interventionist would set up meetings to discuss ways to solve the absenteeism and avoid further punishment on the student.

“If you’re missing the same class period and you’re looking at 15, 16, 17 absences in a semester from a class period, there needs to be a defined consequence for that,” Riley said. “And there really wasn’t.”

Graduation requirements received a change, with the previous requirement of 54 credit hours being increased to 58. Riley said this encourages students who want to graduate at semester their senior year to “work for it.”

“They’re going to have to have [graduating at semester] as a goal,” Riley said. “They’re going to have to have been thinking about it, working at it... We want it to be a thought-out process, a meaningful process, and they have an actual reason behind it.”

Riley said the new change won’t disrupt the ability for seniors to have free periods and still graduate at semester, as well as encourage more participation in college classes and making all classes more valuable.

One proposed change revolves around teacher communication with parents during formative and summative assessments. Teachers are required to communicate with parents if their student is struggling on assessments and has the potential to be academically ineligible.

The item in the student handbook recommends teachers to communicate up to one week before the end of a grading period. Riley described this process as potentially problematic for the end of a school semester, saying how, if teachers were to follow the guidelines, communication between teachers and parents could cease during the final week of a semester even if the student is struggling. This change removes this guideline.

“We want our teachers teaching up until the end of the term, which means they’ll be assessing up until the end of the term,” Riley said. “That one week isn’t necessarily going to be possible... We want our teachers teaching until the end of the course. In order to be able to do that and assess up until the end of the course, that one week piece, we’re looking to remove that.”

Student conduct policy received changes, including a stricter definition for student fighting and brawls as violating conduct and subjected to disciplinary action. In school suspensions would also ban students from participating in extracurricular activities on the day of the suspension.

Continuing changes for extracurricular access to conduct-violating students, a loophole which allowed student conduct violations to be served early was proposed to be closed. The change, which Riley had discussed with activities director Nate McCullough, would force extended conduct violation bans for sports to be done only if the student had joined before the first competition of the season.

Some students who received extended conduct violations would join sporting activities in the middle of their seasons for the sole purpose of serving the violation early so they could have a clean record for their next extracurricular activity. Riley gave an example of a student who joined baseball three weeks before the end of the season just so they could avoid any ban on their football season.

“In theory, they can join any sport that had enough time left to serve their violation,” Riley said.