Board tweaks policies to prepare for school year

With the beginning of the school year just a week away, the Grafton School Board on Monday changed policies that govern everything from cell phone use to hall passes to senior study halls.

Classes for students in grades five and nine through 12 begin Tuesday, Sept. 1, while students in early childhood, 4-K through fourth grades and sixth through eighth grades start school on Wednesday, Sept. 2.

The Board approved an expansion of senior study hall privileges at the high school, allowing every senior who meets the requirements to leave the school for study hall throughout the day.

Previously, only seniors with study halls during the first, fourth, fifth or eighth periods could take advantage of the program, which essentially created a late start or early release day for them, Principal Scott Mantei said.

The change was recommended, Mantei said, because the program is so popular that seniors who didn’t have a study hall during those periods were changing their schedules in a way that “does not best fit their post-secondary goals.”

“Sometimes seniors aren’t making the best decisions,” he said.

To address that, he said, the administration recommended that seniors who qualify could leave campus during a study hall any hour of the day.

Because classes are 85 minutes, Mantei said, “it provides seniors with time to get home, take care of what they need to do and get back.”

The senior study hall privilege is only available to seniors who are passing all their classes, have no unexcused absences and haven’t had any “major behavioral offenses resulting in suspension,” he told the board. Parental approval is required.

These standards are checked by administrators every three weeks, he said, and privileges are revoked if students no longer meet the standards.

“It is one of their most sought after privileges,” Mantei said. “They have used it responsibly at the beginning and end of the day.”

The board also approved a cell phone policy that requires high school students to relinquish their phones during study halls.

Previously, students who spent 60 minutes of their study hall without their phones could use the devices during the last 25 minutes of a study hall, Mantei said.

But state law has changed and now prohibits students from accessing their cell phones during instructional time, which includes study halls, he said.

“It’s a small change we believe we need to make to be in line with state law,” Mantei said.

Students may use their cell phones before and after school, during lunch and while passing between classes.

The board also approved a digital hall pass system that will replace the current paper pass system.

“We believe our current paper and pencil classroom sign out procedures are outdated,” Mantei told the board.

The new system will modernize the system, be more efficient and more accurate in tracking when students leave and return to the classroom.

Teachers can set zones where students are allowed to go, allow the school to know how many students are out of the classroom and for how long and, in the case of an emergency, where students are.

The school does not intend to use the digital system to restrict the number of passes a student receives, he added.

With the new system, Mantei said, students can create a hall pass on their Chromebooks with permission from the teacher, teachers can create a pass or a kiosk system in the classroom can be used to create a pass.

The school will continue to prohibit students from receiving a pass during the first or last five minutes of any academic block, he added.