The York County School Board learned about potential changes to the student handbook for the 2013 to 2014 school year—chief among them are changes that would update the code of conduct to align with the Code of Virginia and allow third- and fourth-graders to bring e-readers to school.
The school board did not vote to accept any of the potential changes. That vote will come at their June 14 meeting.
The changes to the code of conduct would update it to accurately reflect the Code of Virginia. In particular, offenses that are criminal acts in the state of Virginia would be listed under a section in the code of conduct that corresponds with the listing in the Code of Virginia. By doing this, administrators will have an easier time reporting offenses to the state, which prepares an annual report of criminal and disciplinary activity in schools.
The changes are also geared toward parents, who currently receive disciplinary letters that use the Code of Virginia code section to identify any infractions from their children. By listing the Code of Virginia in the student handbook, which would also feature the relevant text from the Code of Virginia, the hope is parents would have a clearer idea of the content of the disciplinary letter.
Any changes to the handbook would not change the procedure undertaken by school administrators when they investigate potential infractions — after gathering evidence and information, they would then make an informed decision.
The change does add a clause to the section on alcohol rules, which say that substances that are represented as alcohol are also forbidden. Whether a student would be punished for representing a nonalcoholic substance as alcohol comes down to the best judgment of the administrator in the school — if that student was creating a distraction, they would likely be in trouble, said Carl James, chief operations officer for the school division.
Under the proposal, third- and fourth-grade students would be allowed to bring privately owned e-reader devices to school for the purpose of independent reading. They would not be allowed to access WiFi or private Internet connections. The e-reader policy was previously limited to fifth-graders.
Students in grades five through 12 would be allowed to use privately owned electronic devices on the York County School Division wireless network. Access to the network is meant to enhance classroom experience, and students who don’t have a device will still be able to participate.
The handbook proposal also calls for the start and release times of Grafton-Bethel Elementary School to be pushed back by 15 minutes. School would start at 9 a.m. instead of 8:45 a.m., while it would dismiss at 3:36 p.m. instead of 3:21 p.m. The reason for the change is to allow buses enough time to make it to the school to pick up students at the end of the day. That school shares buses with nearby schools, and due to traffic conditions in the area, the buses don’t always make it to Grafton-Bethel Elementary on time to pick up students at the end of the day.
