The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD) Board of Education will be continuing its conversations around mobile phone usage this week, while also hearing updates on Measure SMS-related infrastructure projects.
At its Thursday meeting, the board will look to approve of a Board Policy replacement for Mobile Communication Devices, a change years in the making as the previous title of the policy was “Beepers, Pagers, Cellular Phones and Other Electronic Signaling Devices.”
The new policy language is crafted from the California School Boards Association, taking advantage of AB 272 which authorizes boards to limit or prohibit student use of smartphones while at school or while under supervision and control of a district employee. Specific circumstances under the CSBA policy act as exceptions, such as permission given from a teacher or administrator, direction by a student’s health care provider or requirements under a student’s individualized education program or Section 504 plan.
Along with the action on the Board Policy, Administrative Regulations on the smartphone subject will return as an informational item. The regulations, crafted for grades K-8, center on the potential implementation of “Away for the Day,” requiring the stowing away of devices in carry bags or containers.
Elementary school students would have a personal carry bag or container assigned to them for the duration of a school day, while middle schoolers either must do the same or stow away devices in a container assigned by a teacher for each classroom. Further discussion will be held on which option middle schoolers will start with, as well as potential regulations on the high school level.
On the infrastructure front, the board will look to award an agreement for construction management services to Fonder-Salari for Grant Elementary School projects. In a contract amount not to exceed $1,501,580, Fonder-Salari was selected out of 11 firms that submitted project-specific proposals for Grant’s Early Education Building, library modernization and new classroom buildings. A Measure SMS-funded set of endeavors, early learning modernization is set to begin in December, per the Grant webpage, while library modernization is planned to start in June 2025.
Maintenance will also be on the mind of the board via a report from the district’s Maintenance and Operation Department, which will share its work over the past year and discuss improvement priorities. Other reports at Thursday’s meeting include commendations for Samohi National Merit Scholars and the CIF Southern Section Division 4 champion Samohi girls flag football team.
The board itself will remain intact after the results of the 2024 elections, as Board President Jennifer Smith, Board Vice President Jon Kean and board member Maria Leon-Vazquez were all voted in to keep their positions.
At a Nov. 13 meeting of the Santa Monica Democratic Club, Leon-Vazquez was in attendance while Smith and Kean were part of a Los Angeles County Office of Education Committee on School District Organization public hearing on Malibu separation. Leon-Vazquez stated that while the only competing candidate for the three board positions, Christine Falaguerra, removed her name from the race, the election cycle still gave her the opportunity to “really go out there” and campaign locally.