Pittsfield School Committee to Review New Cell Phone Regs
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The School Committee will hold a special meeting on Wednesday to consider the appointment of a new special education director and learn about updated cell phone regulations for the district.
Interim Deputy Superintendent Matthew Bishop gave the committee a preview of the new rules at its meeting last week.
He said the administration had planned a meeting with the district's principals to finalize the new plan to address infractions.
Under the plan presented last Wednesday, students would be subject to a five-step series of measures based on the number of times they violate the policy.
The first infraction would result in the student being asked to place their phone in the classroom holder for the rest of the class period. Teachers would log the incident and reach out to the student's caregiver by phone or email.
On the second infraction, the student's phone would be taken to the main office, where it can be claimed at the end of the day. On the third offense, the student would be given a half-day assignment in the school's Restorative In-School Education program. The fourth violation would yield a full-day RISE assignment.
For fifth and subsequent violations, the student could be given RISE or out-of-school suspension.
The other order of business a this week's meeting will be a potential vote on a new special education director. Superintendent Joseph Curtis told the School Committee that the 11-person interview committee had interviewed one finalist on Aug. 13 and planned two more interviews on the 15th.
The main decision at last week's regular School Committee meeting involved Curtis' proposal for an eight-month process to decide whether and how to reconfigure the city's middle schools.
The cell phone and special education director updates were part of a monthly report from Curtis and the administrative team, which also included information about a new adult education program for Taconic High and a step forward in a possible building project involving the city's elementary schools.
"We are very excited to report we've received news from [the Massachusetts School Building Authority] that they are visiting Pittsfield to talk about the Crosby/Conte project," Curtis said. "It's really a conversation and tour with school officials and city officials for them to assess the project and its viability.
"It's not a guarantee that we're accepted into the MSBA [funding] pipeline, but it's certainly a first step."
According to Curtis' written report to the School Committee, the MSBA representatives, among other things, will assess the ability of the current school buildings to support the educational program and check out the buildings' physical condition.
The district's assistant superintendent for college and career readiness told the School Committee about a planning grant the Pittsfield Public Schools received along with the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District to launch Career Technical Initiatives programs in the late fall.
The CTI program is an initiative of the quasi-government Commonwealth Corporation that works with vocational schools to provide evening and weekend training for unemployed and underemployed individuals.
"As far back as when Taconic opened, we were asked if that was something we could launch," Tammy Gage told the School Committee. "Our priority really was to onboard those secondary programs so we could get all of that right before we introduce the adult training,
"The CTI purpose is to train the adult workforce, and finally we feel like we can meet that demand and introduce pilot programs at night."
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