The Allegheny Valley School Board won’t disconnect students from their cellphones, but state legislators still could.
The board voted — after the first reading of a proposed electronic device policy — not to change its current policy, according to board President Paula Jean Moretti.
The proposed policy would have further limited cellphone use in district schools.
Any future policy changes would have to be ratified by three readings of a proposal and votes following those readings.
Currently, students are permitted to use their phones at lunchtime in the cafeteria, in the hallways between classes, in study halls when authorized, and on district buses and other vehicles when authorized by the driver.
The vote was 5-2, with Moretti and Antonio Pollino voting for the measure while Colleen Crumb, Rebecca Mundok, Nicole Paulovich, Glenna Renaldi and Amy Sarno opposed it. Board members Kathleen Haas and Fred Derringer were absent.
It took place after the board heard comments from a handful of ninth grade students and one parent who opposed changing the policy.
“Phones should not be viewed as distractions,” said Nicholas Errico, one of the ninth grade students. “They are tools, not toys.
“There have been only two instances this year in my classes where students were told to put away their phones.”
He said, in addition to emergencies, students and parents depend on communicating via texts or calls to keep each other informed of changes in schedules or plans that can occur during the school day.
His mother, Livia Errico, of Cheswick supported the objections made by the students.
“What if there is an emergency at school?,” she told the board. “I would like to have contact with my kid. A robo-call is not letting me know how my kid is.”
Lena Malinowski, another freshman, agreed.
“The school is not going to e-mail parents in the middle of an emergency, students will,” she said.
Moretti pointed out the proposed changes would not force students to turn over their phones to teachers or administrators.
“We are not taking students’ phones,” she said. “We feel that if there is an emergency, it is important for you to have contact with your parents.”
The policy proposal would have continued to allow exceptions to the use of phones in the event of a health, safety or emergency situation; use in Individualized Education Programs; or for other reasons determined to be appropriate by the school principal.
“Nobody is going to penalize a student for bringing a phone out in an emergency,” Pollino said.
Moretti and Pollino emphasized that approval of the new policy on the first reading would not enact it but would refer it back to the policy committee for further review and revisions.
“This has not been fully decided,” Moretti said before the vote.
Pollino said the vote would advance the proposal and allow for more input from the public and the board to the policy committee.
“It would be us saying, ‘This is how we want the policy to look going forward,’” he said.
Board members acknowledged that even if policy changes aren’t approved by the board, the district would still have to comply with whatever decisions might be made at the state level.
Moretti said there is a bill under consideration that would enact a bell-to-bell ban on the use of cellphones and similar electronic devices, such as iPads and watches that are capable of communication.
That is essentially what the proposed changes to the district’s policy would have done.