Schools
New Trier Plans to Change Tech Policy to Include Cell Phone Use
New Trier Township High School District 203 school board proposed eliminating the current stand-alone cell phone policy and including cell phone use regulations in its tech policy.
may soon eliminate its cell phone policy but that doesn't mean the school district will allow students free rein over cell phone use.
Under a proposed change, New Trier Township High School District 203's stand-alone cell phone policy may be eliminated, and cell phone use rules will be included in the district's tech policy.
School board members members discussed proposed changes to the school’s staff and student technology policy that would recognize changes in the way technology is used at the May 21 board meeting at the school’s . The school also has a
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“The cellular phone is no longer just a phone,” said District 203 Superintendent Linda Yonke. “It’s a computer; it’s a camera; it’s a video camera; it’s a calculator. It made more sense to include it with the student technology policy and put the specific rules in the acceptable use regulations.”
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Those regulations are published every year in the school guidebook and reviewed as part of the school’s advisory program. A simplified list also is posted in the school’s computer labs.
Yonke said the changes will make it easier for students to understand the rules.
“All the dos and don’ts will be in the same place,” she said.
Other changes made the policies for student and staff technology use more consistent with one another.
District 203 technology director Chris Johnson said the policies – along with the acceptable use regulations, which are updated each year – apply not only to district computers but also to personal devices, such as iPhones and iPads.
Violations of the rules can have a variety of consequences, including banning violators from district networks, Johnson said.
The district is revisiting the policy as it prepares to expand a pilot project to use district-provided iPads in several classes.
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