The discussion was prompted by an ongoing investigation by the Texas Education Agency.
The gist
The decision to maintain its current cellphone policy came after the district received two letters—one from state Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, and another from the TEA—which suggested that the district’s policy violated House Bill 1481’s prohibition of personal electronic devices during school day.
Maika said he is not concerned about what other districts adopt as a policy but about what works best for NEISD.
“I really don't care what anybody else does. I just don't because I don't answer to their communities. I don't know what some district in West Texas is doing, nor do I care,” Maika said. “I don't because I answer to the parents in this room who spoke up tonight, and every other parent, to the students who choose to come to our schools and to you all, that's who I answer to.”
He also noted that the board was not prompted to change the district’s policy until the conclusion of the TEA investigation.
“Right now, it stands as an alleged violation. There has been no violation, so there's no real cause for [the board] to act at this point,” Maika said.
Terri Chidgey, board vice president and District 6 board member, said the point of the ban was to keep students focused during instructional time, and the district’s policy kept students focused while allaying parents' concerns about being able to reach their children in case of emergencies.
“We're working to protect the instructional time. ... I think we've hit a very good compromise,” Chidgey said.
District 7 board member Marsha Landry said she spoke with multiple families over the weekend who expressed support for allowing students to use phones between classes.
“The [board’s] responsibility is to parents and students, which I feel like we're meeting,” Chidgey said. “I am all for cellphones being used in the correct places and not being where there are distractions. And I think our policy is in compliance.”
President and District 4 board member David Beyer said NEISD’s current policy strikes a good balance.
“I think we're in a position where we've heard our community, we've talked to our staff, we've listened to our students, and we've come up with a good plan, something that is reasonable,” Beyer said.
Stay tuned
Ricardo Lopez, legal counsel for NEISD, said there is no timeline for when TEA will conclude their investigation.
“TEA will either issue a finding that there's been no violation, or they will issue some sort of a finding that there is some sort of violation for which they're going to mandate that the district take some form of corrective action,” Lopez said. “Usually it's just they call it a notice of corrective actions, and they will implement what they expect the school district to do and by when they expect it to be done.”
