School board committee eyes policy changes

Come March, Acadia Parish’s dress code and cell phone policies may be updated and clarified for the entire district.
At the Acadia Parish School Board’s January Personnel Insurance & Curriculum Committee meeting, Milton Simar, board member for District 8, brought forth two issues regarding the policies and their phrasing.
Regarding cell phones, the board will likely take action to removal the prohibition of possessing a cell phone on school campuses by students.
Basically, so long as school personnel cannot see the phone and a student does not use a phone without authorization by personnel, a student merely having his or her phone would no longer be a punishable offense.
“If it’s visible in any way, shape or form, (school personnel) can deny them to use it,” said Superintendent John Bourque as he further explained the change.
Bourque pointed out that some bus drivers allow students to use their cell phones on the bus, as do some coaches at athletic events, but things like the new smart watches are also covered in the revamped policy. Thus if it’s visible, a teacher, principal and so on continues to have a course of action against the student and the telecommunication device that is visible or in use.
Bourque also advised members of the committee that school personnel have been instructed to not be picky and that things like the outline of the cell phone do not count as visible.
“If it’s an imprint, it’s assumed it’s a calculator,” said Ellan Baggett, executive director of personnel/operations.
For the dress code, outerwear clarification was requested by Simar. While making the clarification that any pullover with a zipper – full or partial – are considered outerwear, and outerwear is allowed.
“They can wear any kind of jacket [within reason] to school; whatever their parents can afford to buy them that’s going to keep them warm, we’re going to let them wear,” said Baggett at an earlier meeting.
A secondary clarification was made in that policy regarding sweatshirt color choices, one overlooked when the parish adopted shirt color choices.
The proposed policy now reads, “Navy or school colored sweatshirts may be worn over polo shirts during cold weather.”
“If it has a zipper, they can wear it as a coat,” reiterated Baggett Monday night.
Specific prohibitions are not stated in the dress code policy.
This measure will also be voted upon at the March meeting.