Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-10-29-SC-PMS-min (Policy Manual Subcommittee) POLICY SUB COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES OCT 29TH 2024 Participants: Eileen Jay, Deepika Sawhney, Superintendent Hackett, Principals: Meg Collela, Dane Despres, Andrew Baker; Director of Innovation and Instructional Technology Mr. Martellone, SC members: Eileen Jay, Deepika Sawhney Meeting start time: 2:39 pm call to order Date: September 24th 2024. Dr. Hackett shared the google document which was being used for the edits to the current policy IJNDBA- Student standards for the Acceptable use of Technology (LPS) and JICJ (Newton) Deepika gave a brief introduction on the parent concerns as well as ongoing news headlines which prompted the re-look at our existing policy on technology use. She also mentioned that while this policy may focus more on devices such as cell phones, a separate effort may be required for an Al policy or guidelines with staff help. She continued that the current LPS policy is well written and covers most issues. The Newton policy has certain sections which she had added to the current LPS policy to create a more comprehensive document. Mr. Martellone talked about the fact that his department has been looking into these matters too. In the recent tech conference for schools MassCue, he had seen districts who presented their guidelines on this topic and were willing to share their language for other districts to create their policies . Ms. Meg Collela, mentioned that at the elementary level, students do have cell phones and bring them to school in their backpacks. They may keep them in lockers or give them to teachers. Kids use the phones for after school activities and such coordination with parents. The LPS policies do not allow use of phones on school buses including METCO transportation. Though they have been approached by parents to allow phone use, LPS are maintaining the same guidelines for no cell phone use on the buses. Children will also have smart watches which they are not supposed to use in school. She did not want to have to police those kinds of personal electronic device use in elementary schools. Mr. Despres spoke about assessments and how during MCAS testing the kids cannot wear the watches. There was general consensus that it's important to teach the kids how to use these devices correctly. A lot of learning around how to use them during school hours etc . Mr. Dane Despres - explained the current state in the middle schools. The spirit of the student guidelines and the LPS policy are aligned. Students will have technology such as headphones, earpods and cell phones but these are not to be used during the school days. The directive to the teacher is to confiscate if they are used. Every day 2-3 are in the cell phone jail at the school office. Mostly there is compliance and students do not use cellphones in schools. Sometimes kids find a way to sneak access to their personal devices. However, there is no issue on a routine basis for about 95% of the students Mr. Despres, Mr. Martellone, Mr. Baker spoke about how some of the issues around negative use of electronic devices takes place after the children return home. There is a lot of work the schools do to teach about responsible use of electronic media through Anti bullying lessons which push in lessons beginning in 6th grade. There is intervention etc when an issue develops outside of schools, when things happen overnight and kids come in agitated. The schools then manage the issue and try to bring about equitable resolution. There is greater social media access once the kids are home. It was mentioned that most of the tech issues that come to the administrators' desk from staff, are about what they can do with chrome books to stop students from switching tabs constantly. This usually is an indication that the students are doing something other than the academic work they are assigned. In middle schools students are not allowed to keep their phones out. They can carry the phones in their backpacks. There was also some concern around families trying to reach the children during school hours through text etc. How this could be disrupting the child's attention. Mr. Martellone -the middle school chromebooks are more expensive than LHS chromebooks. The chrome books have two cameras so that they can use them for assignments as directed by educators. For the highschool those cameras are not needed in the chrome books so they are cheaper. One of the programs Mr. Martellone's team is running for the school children is Care, Connect and Focus- which teaches how to use phones and other electronic devices responsibly. Mr. Despres mentioned that the middle schools benefit from the fact that they are relative dead zones for cell phones i.e. bad cell service. Eileen asked if there have been many instances of use of cell phones in bathrooms. Mr. Despres said that it does not happen so much in school, but on buses it does happen that kids are taking pictures eventhough the school rules do not allow that. Dr. Hackett mentioned that there should be appropriate guidance for parents so that kids are not given unfettered access at home. Eileen mentioned that parents' concern is the desire to have communication with your child in case of an emergency. However, they also may be texting their child during school hours hence undermining the school rules. M. Baker talked about the parents desire for access in case of emergencies, as they are concerned about school safety. Regarding cell phone access during school time many people have come forward and reached out to Mr. Baker and other administrators, similarly educators also want to work on this issue. Mr. Baker further described the steps taken so far at LHS. He stressed that practicality was important. A faculty committee had come together to look at the research. They advocated for phone hotels, essentially shoe trees which students could park their phones in. Thase have been very popular with the teachers. There are many different ways educators are encouraging compliance, for example some teachers may take attendance next to the phone tree. He said that now "When I walk in they are not on desks anymore, ... for academic purposes we have achieved the goals. Kids are keeping phones in their bags and not on their desks." There was further discussion around core academic times where students cannot/don't use cell phones. These would include subject matter classes like liberal arts and science. WiN blocks and I blocks, are more self driven work times for students, where cell phones may be allowed based on teacher preference. There is strong consensus that the core academic times should be without phones. In the schools, sometimes one does see kids have phones in the bathrooms, but for the most part the majorty of the phones stay in the holders in the classrooms. Any untoward behaviour is mostly after school or on weekends, sometimes requiring a law enforcement component to manage. Mr. Baker shared that the LHS teachers have started asking for the trees even for installing seconds in their classrooms. They are not expensive, about $13-14. Deepika shared that the Yondr pouches can be about $25 per child which could easily become an expense of 60K per year. Mr. Baker said that any such technology could be quickly rendered ineffective because the LHS students are very smart at computer science and could figure workarounds if needed. He also shared that during any form of assessments the teachers are strictly adhering to no cell phones and other such tech. Mr. Martellone agreed that the Yondrs are expensive and the kids are so smart that they keep cracking the network password; a Yondr may not be enough to deny phone access to the student. Mr. Baker also said that he has been emphasizing that time together in the class is community time. It's time to be attentive. And being a little bit more relaxed on no cell phone use enforcement in non core spaces. Mr. Martellone emphasized that there are a limited number of network access connections in a room. If personal laptops and phones all access the 50 or so connections then the network slows down significantly. Only kids in close proximity would be able to access and the multitude of devices would significantly diminish the signal strength. He mentioned that Cyber security is key and that public schools are being targeted quite often in general. His department is constantly improving the security and network capabilities. There are different networks for staff, student devices and certification processes for connections. Mr. Martellone mentioned that LPS belongs to an org that is called Education Collaboration and many years earlier there was less emphasis on data privacy, however now there are standard Massachusetts agreements around student data privacy for software apps. There are data privacy agreements with platforms and expectations of compliance and in the case of any data breach etc. Mr. Baker suggested that LPS collect some data on how things are going, with the guidelines in place, do a survey of three home rooms perhaps. Also build awareness amongst parents that class time should be respected. Mr. Martellone and Mr. Baker mentioned that as needed the students could get teacher exemptions if the personal smartphones were needed for content (debate classes) or for any other critical reason. Eileen and Deepika also mentioned the need to get SEPAC and ELL parent feedback as sometimes students needed phones to access academic content. Also that exemptions existed when there was medical or other critical need for the smart phones. Mr. Martellone suggested that in the handbook to put in some language to reference this policy. and administrators discussed that making the policy more succinct might be helpful. He also mentioned that annually in the Fall, tailored letters for acceptable use of technology and responsible guidelines are communicated to all parents in all schools. Eileen asked what is in a students' handbook and what is in school policy. Mr. Baker- stated that LHS has created a compromise between ban and no ban. They are working on building the types of habits that the kids can rely on for their future. Mr. Dane - spoke about making the policies easier for general practice and use. The policy should give the wherewithall and flexibility to address many types of issues. He cautioned that policies which were too prescriptive sometimes hampered what the educators could implement in the classroom. At present the policy has served for the situations encountered to date. Deepika said that one motivation to do this work on cell phone policy is to raise awareness in the parent-educator community of what needs to be done with the advent of advanced technology. This would also allow parents to point to school policy in their decision making when buying tech, as a lot of the purchasing is driven by peer pressure amongst kids. Mr. Baker said that technology should be best used when it fulfills curriculum objectives and not just because it is there. An authentic learning experience for the student is the goal. If the technology is increasing learning then it works well. Ms. Meg said that there is a perception that all the learning is through tech, however, parent visitors have seen how it's very different. She also mentioned that perhaps more outreach was needed to show parents how technology is used in our classrooms. Mr. Dane concurred that what is handed out as a resource in class and what is happening in the classroom may be different on a day to day basis. The materials are not the sum total of the classroom experience. Mr. Baker shared that the LHS PTO has been supporting a lot of training around the Al use in education. Educators are slowly coming to terms with the challenges and opportunities with Al. There also has been discussions about the equity and sustainability issues raised by the use of Al such as who can buy a monthly subscription of an Al service or the use of water to cool supercomputers etc in the age of water shortage. The work is now around helping the teachers be super clear in creating when and how Al is allowed in their classroom. When kids understand what is allowed then there are less opportunities for what feels like unfair penalization. Deepika mentioned that initially she had been impressed by Al capabilities but soon realized that it's only a tool and depends on the user's capabilities to be effective. Only as good as the user. Mr. Martellone - said that there was quite a level of concern around Al and writing. In Mass Cue, the educators worked on guidelines and resources for Al use. A lot of Al platforms are not letting kids under age 18 to use. These are some of the safeguards to protect children. Eileen asked whether the policy has an impact on staff and educators. Mr. Martellone spoke about doing a crosswalk of the Newton policy and the LPS staff one and found some overlap and some sections which could be incorporated. The group expressed interest in doing a separate meeting for staff acceptable use policy edits. Eileen suggested bringing in the parent groups into the discussion and sending the parents a draft of the student policy to give feedback on. Deepika asked the question: at certain points of the year (Christmas, start of summer break) families make the decision to purchase phones for their children, so should we be recommending flip phones for example?The flip phones do not have some of the advanced capabilities of smart phones which can lead to misuse. Especially in an affluent district like Lexington the norm may be to buy the most advanced technology. Principal Meg Collela said that it's a family decision what they equip their child with and perhaps not the schools' purview. There was general conversation about how different policies may actually be working in tandem to fill gaps in any one policy, for example the anti bullying policy and cell phone policy. Next steps - Ina week or ten days have the administrators and educators provide feedback on the current draft. Then to take this draft and share it more widely with the community to get feedback. The meeting was adjourned at 3.54pm.