Redmond School Board votes on PED policy
Tracee Tuesday
REDMOND, Ore. {KTVZ} — The Redmond School District is moving forward with new rules on cell phones and other personal devices.
Wednesday evening, the Redmond School Board adopted policy #JF-CEB, which governs the use of Personal Electronic Devices, also known as PED’s.
Back in July, Governor Tina Kotek, issued Executive Order 25-09, prohibiting the use of devices like cell phones, smartwatches, and earbuds during the school day for all K-12 public schools.
The governor says the ban is designed to reduce distractions, improve mental health, and create a stronger learning environment.
Redmond School District Superintendent Dr. Charan Cline says the district has already put in the work.
“I think I’d like people to know that this is an extension of much of the work that we’ve done already as a school district. We already didn’t allow cell phones or other electronic devices at our elementary schools. our middle schools have been phasing them out. The executive order has simply accelerated our process.”
Under Governor Kotek’s order, districts must adopt their own policies by October 31st and fully enforce them by January 1st.
Discipline for breaking the rules cannot include suspensions or expulsions — instead, schools are being urged to use restorative practices.
“We put in a fairly simple set of consequences if students are violating the policy. The first issue, we simply take the cell phone away from them. We bring it to the office, and then they collect it at the end of the day. For the second round, we did the same thing, except that we call parents and ask parents to come and pick up the phone, and the third issue is that we actually want to meet with the parents if they do it again; have a discussion about why the policy is there,” said Dr. Cline.
Redmond School District Board Chair, Michael Summers said, in terms of implementation of the device policy, they were not the first, on purpose.
“We had already done our research. We had looked at other districts across the state; what worked, what didn’t. It’s not always great to be first, and so, we are not first, that’s intentional. We wanted to make sure that what we put in place could be done with very minimal adjustments down the road, that we’re off to the races successfully. and then hopefully we’re on to education.”
The Redmond School Board says it will revisit the policy in six months to review how it’s working for both administrators and students — and to consider additional updates.