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4 •THE CHARLTON VILLAGER• Friday, June 6, 2008<br />
www.charltonvillager.com<br />
School officials mull cell phone regulations<br />
BY PATRICK SKAHILL<br />
TIMES STAFF WRITER<br />
DUDLEY — As cell phones<br />
become more akin to an extra<br />
body part than an electronic<br />
luxury throughout the country,<br />
local school officials are<br />
increasingly finding themselves<br />
scratching their heads<br />
with how to regulate these<br />
devices during school hours.<br />
Last Wednesday, May 28,<br />
members of the Dudley-<br />
Charlton School Committee<br />
briefly discussed the issue as<br />
they mulled over potential<br />
changes to student handbooks<br />
with district principals.<br />
“We’re getting into a time<br />
now where [cell phones] are<br />
an appendage ... I’m not sure<br />
at this time we want to [ban]<br />
these,” said Superintendent<br />
Sean Gilrein, “but whatever<br />
we can do to curb their use<br />
during the day is worthwhile.”<br />
While committee members<br />
and district administrators<br />
all agreed unilaterally banning<br />
cell phones on school<br />
grounds would make little<br />
sense, they also recognized<br />
the distractions inherent in<br />
allowing students to carry<br />
these devices into class.<br />
“We’ve all had that problem,”<br />
said committee member<br />
Catherine Kabala, noting<br />
how cell phones go off in<br />
classrooms all the time. “It’s<br />
out of control.”<br />
Currently at Shepherd Hill<br />
Regional High School, students<br />
using electronic devices<br />
— which also include MP3<br />
players and mobile web<br />
devices — during classroom<br />
time are subjected to increasingly<br />
severe penalties ranging<br />
anywhere from a warning<br />
to an out of school suspension,<br />
said Principal Timothy<br />
Schur.<br />
Over at Dudley Middle<br />
School, electronic devices are<br />
prohibited during academic<br />
hours and any device brought<br />
to school must be turned off<br />
and stored in a locker during<br />
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the school day. If this rule is<br />
violated, the devices are confiscated<br />
and returned only to<br />
a parent or guardian.<br />
This same confiscation regulation<br />
holds at the high<br />
school as well.<br />
While committee members<br />
said they had no hang ups<br />
about school officials confiscating<br />
devices that hinder<br />
classroom learning, some<br />
members did raise questions<br />
about how the devices are<br />
taken, pointing to the potential<br />
liability issues that could<br />
arise.<br />
Kabala highlighted one<br />
issue of particular concern<br />
saying phones confiscated by<br />
school officials, if stolen,<br />
could lead to “a lot of financial<br />
issues” for the district.<br />
Over at Shepherd Hill,<br />
Schur said there are nearly 20<br />
cell phones currently sitting<br />
at the school that have not<br />
been claimed by parents.<br />
The phones are all kept<br />
under lock and key, a practice<br />
committee members praised<br />
Gilrein<br />
and said should be implemented<br />
across the district.<br />
By the end of the brief discussion,<br />
school officials and<br />
committee members agreed<br />
— electronic devices should<br />
only be confiscated by school<br />
administrators, not teachers,<br />
and once confiscated, the<br />
school is responsible, so<br />
administrators must be sure<br />
they are kept secure.<br />
While an outright ban on<br />
these electronic devices will<br />
probably never happen,<br />
administrators did say they<br />
thought their solution was<br />
the fairest and most classroom-friendly<br />
way of dealing<br />
with the problem since they<br />
argue it will act as a deterrent<br />
to classroom distractions, but<br />
still leave students in possession<br />
of devices, which have in<br />
this day in age become a vital<br />
lifeline for coordinating after<br />
school activities and schedules<br />
with parents.<br />
Committee members also<br />
emphasized administrators<br />
must make very clear in their<br />
handbooks that neither they<br />
nor any teacher will have the<br />
right to go through the contents<br />
of a student’s confiscated<br />
electronic device.<br />
Other items discussed during<br />
Wednesday night’s meeting<br />
included the approval of a<br />
$17,100 grant from the state<br />
for a summer MCAS program<br />
at the school.<br />
Payment should be transferred<br />
to the district after<br />
July 1.<br />
Bank names 11 new officers<br />
About 175 applications for<br />
the program have been sent<br />
out to students and Gilrein<br />
said he expects enrollment to<br />
be higher this year than last.<br />
Gilrein additionally<br />
announced a generous donation<br />
of one Smartboard to<br />
Shepherd Hill from the<br />
French River Education<br />
Center, Inc., a non-profit educational,<br />
training and support<br />
agency based in North<br />
Oxford.<br />
The center will also donate<br />
an “Integrity Call<br />
Notification System” for the<br />
next school year, which will<br />
be used to notify parents in<br />
the event of an emergency.<br />
“We’d like to thank [The<br />
French River Education<br />
Center] for their continued<br />
efforts to give back to the<br />
school district,” Gilrein said.<br />
Patrick Skahill may be<br />
reached at (508) 909-4129, or by<br />
e-mail at pskahill@stonebridgepress.com.<br />
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SOUTHBRIDGE — Savers Bank has<br />
announced the promotions of eleven new officers.<br />
Joseph Coderre has been named senior vice<br />
president, treasurer and chief financial officer.<br />
Three vice presidents have been appointed:<br />
David Merrill and William Carbone to the<br />
posts of vice president Commercial Lending,<br />
and Walter Czabaj to the position of vice president<br />
Consumer Lending and Collections.<br />
The bank has named three assistant vice<br />
presidents, Lou-Ellen Corkum as AVP<br />
Training and Compliance Officer, Robin<br />
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Officer, in addition to his position as Branch<br />
Manager of the Auburn office; Mary Jane<br />
Perkins as Mortgage Operations Supervisor &<br />
CRA Officer and Vivian Delisle as Retail<br />
Banking Officer as well as Branch Manager of<br />
the <strong>Southbridge</strong> Office.<br />
All have been longtime employees of the<br />
Bank. The appointments were announced by<br />
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VILLAGER TRIVIA<br />
ANSWER: Declare acts of<br />
Congress unconstitutional.<br />
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IN THE CAR IS NOT GOING TO<br />
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TheHeartOfMassachusetts.com