Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The Logan Municipal Schools board last week held a first reading on a revised and toughened cellphone policy for students set to take effect during the 2024-2025 school year.
The board will be scheduled to vote whether to adopt the new policy during its April meeting.
Superintendent Dennis Roch said the policy revisions came after two work sessions.
“The board still welcomes stakeholder input as they consider revising this policy,” Roch wrote in an email to the Quay County Sun.
A key part of the revised policy states:
“Logan Municipal Schools is committed to providing a safe, positive, and productive learning environment. Because the student use of electronic devices on our school campus has increased the frequency of classroom disruptions, reduced student focus on academics and resulted in more instances of threatening or inappropriate communications, student use of cell phones and other electronic devices is hereby prohibited.”
Electronic devices include cellphones, smart watches, iPods or MP3 players, AirPods, headphones not provided by the district and cameras that can connect wirelessly to the internet. Roch noted some of the stricken language was outdated, including references to radios and CD players.
Unauthorized student use of the devices on campus during the school day will result in their confiscation and disciplinary action.
The policy adds “in extraordinary circumstances, an administrator may waive this prohibition on a case-by-case basis.” Roch said such an example would be if the student had a parent or relative who was sick.
Stricken language included allowing teachers or administrators to establish classroom procedures requiring students to store their phones during class.
Confiscated devices will be brought to the principal, with these consequences:
— With a first offense, the device will be returned only to a parent or guardian at the end of the school day.
— In a second offense, the student will be placed in in-school suspension for one day, with the device returned to the parent or guardian at the end of the suspension.
— In third or subsequent offenses, the student faces an in-school suspension for two days, with the device returned to the parent or guardian at the end of the suspension.
In the original language for first offenses, students would be counseled and reminded of the policy, with the device returned to him or her at the end of the day.
Roch noted the policy doesn’t apply to students going to lunch off-campus or athletes traveling to road games.
Roch said the new policy was patterned after one school district in Texas and two in New Mexico to reduce student distractions.
Board President Toby Willis welcomed the policy proposal.
“It’s an ongoing distraction,” he said of students’ cellphones. “It’s been nothing but trouble.”
The new policy also states the district will not be liable for the loss or damage of such devices at school or school-sponsored activities.
In other business:
— Roch and board members discussed the 180-day rule announced the previous week by Education Secretary Arsenio Romero that would force many rural schools to go from a four-day to five-day week of instruction in the 2024-2025 year.
Roch noted it will be difficult and “unreasonable” for Logan to attain the reading proficiency improvements to remain on a four-day schedule, especially when online students are counted.
“There likely will be legal challenges that will delay its implementation,” Roch said.
Roch said Logan and other districts might lose 10% to 30% of their staff if they go to a five-day schedule.
“This completely smacks of shoving it down our throats,” board member Tom Humble said. “The whole thing is about control.”
Willis added: “Nobody likes this.”
— The board approved a 2024-2025 academic calendar that include a four-days-a-week instruction schedule, with start dates of Aug. 7-8 for the first classes for students and a May 24 graduation.
Roch said the calendar contains a 153-day contract, which is the same as the current year.
— The board approved allowing sixth-grade students to participate in athletic programs sanctioned by the New Mexico Activities Association. The move was proposed due to low numbers in middle-school athletic programs at Logan. Athletic director Billy Burns said it can be a year-to-year decision if numbers improve.
— The board approved a policy change that allows a staff member to use more emergency leave at the administrator’s discretion if the employee has exhausted his or her five leave days. The change was prompted by an employee who had a death in the family and lacked sufficient leave time.
— The board approved moving the district’s banking services to the Bank of Logan, which opened last month in the former New Mexico Bank & Trust site.
New Mexico Bank & Trust closed its branch in Logan in December 2022, leaving the village without a bank for the first time in more than a century.
— The board tabled a decision on whether to approve a seven-day cruise to Alaska next year for the Class of 2025.
Class sponsor Glynna Strand said the class was making its request “to avoid problems” with future scheduling and lock in cheaper rates with the cruise ship.
Willis said the board is reviewing district policy about senior class trips, but it would give an answer to the request “sooner than later.”
“We don’t want to get ourselves in the same mess when we moved quickly,” he said, referring to the Class of 2024’s forthcoming trip to Alaska that forced the board to move graduation to late June from the traditional Memorial Day weekend.