Sweet Home School Board members got a heads-up about district plans to ban student use of cellphones during school hours, starting Jan. 1, at their Aug. 11 meeting.
The board also swore in its last new electee from the May 20 election and approved an out-of-state trip for Sweet Home High School FFA members.
In addition to extended debate over an aborted attempt in late July to meet and consider the termination of Supt. Terry Martin, board members also carried on some regular business.
Before launching into its other business, then-Vice Chair Mike Adams swore in Amanda Carter, who was not at the board’s July meeting and had not officially been sworn in.
Board members later voted to remove Floyd Neuschwander as chair and then elected Adams to the position by a 6-1 vote, Member Mary Massey opposing both moves. CHECK VOTE ON FLOYD.
Martin reported to the board that the district will begin looking into a total ban on cellphones in response to an executive order issued July 2 by Gov. Tina Kotek after an effort to pass a law to that effect failed in the legislative session.
Kotek’s order requires that all of Oregon’s 197 school districts adopt a policy for banning student cellphone use by Oct. 31, 2025. Those policies must be fully implemented by Jan. 1, 2026, according to the order.
House Bill 2251 passed the House 36-21 in mid-April but died in a Senate committee at the end of the legislative session.
“We need to get feedback from the community to reach a sensible solution,” Martin said, adding that the Oregon School Boards Association is expected to suggest model language that, Martin said, the district will scrutinize.
Board Member Jenna Northern asked if the district can write “our own rules,” to which Martin replied that Sweet Home will be “bound by the language of the executive order.” He told the board that the ban will not apply to staff.
Business Manager Kevin Strong told the board that the district’s year-to-date spending was some $63,000 higher than for the same period last year.
He said higher insurance premiums are driving the increase.
“These costs continue to go up substantially,” Strong said.
Sweet Home is in a pool with most of the other districts in the state, which means that if there are costly problems on other campuses, Sweet Home helps bear the extra costs.
Recently, he noted, glue-lam beams in the North Medford High School gym collapsed, forcing the reconstruction of that facility.
“We’re contributing to that,” Strong said, adding that when other districts get sued, that also can impact Sweet Home’s rates.
That, he said, is why Sweet Home requires “a lot of time” for training “so our staff will act professionally around students.
“We’re at a point in Oregon where some districts have had a number of claims and are losing coverage or have had to go out on the market.”
The board also approved an out-of-state trip by the Sweet Home High School’s Future Farmers of America officers to the FFA’s national convention Oct. 25 through Nov. 2 in Indianapolis, Ind. The students, who will be accompanied by FFA adviser Scott Jacobson and his wife Alexis, will get a chance to participate in workshops, volunteer activities, a career and college fair, agricultural and natural resource tours, tours of agribusiness and historical sites, and, possibly, tours of college campuses.
Also, Martin informed the board that a meeting to discuss the district’s Strategic Plan will be held from 3 to 6 p.m. prior to the board’s next regular meeting, on Sept. 9.