By Charlotte Matherly, contributor
Most student conduct violations in Rockingham County public schools are declining.
Board member Matt Cross said it’s a culmination of the school board’s yearslong crackdown.
“This is exciting for me tonight,” Cross said at Monday night’s meeting. “I mean, to see the improvements – I believe there are improvements – over the past almost four years I’ve been on the board is pretty significant.”
Incidents of excessive tardiness and skipping decreased from 1,047 in the 2023-24 school year to 881 this past school year, continuing a trend, and classroom disruptions are down from 640 to 490 over the same time period.
Other infractions have decreased, too. Drugs and alcohol violations are down by roughly 29%, tobacco and nicotine by 26%, incidents of disrespect and defiance by 12%, and use of obscene language and gestures by 5%.
“All these things were big deals to us, and we wanted to make sure that we were doing our due diligence as a board to make sure our schools are safe for our children in our schools,” Cross said.
Cross, who served as the board chair last year, had said he wanted to prioritize student conduct and also pushed to establish a so-called “bell-to-bell” ban on student cellphone use.
With enforcement of that new policy, cellphone violations are up from 321 in 2023-24 to 2,015 during last academic year.
Because of changes in the way the division labels different violations, Superintendent Larry Shifflett said that number may be skewed. Actions that might have constituted disrespect or defiance in a previous year may now be classified under the cellphone rules.
Also on the rise were physical altercations, including instances of shoving and full-fledged fights. Those increased from 468 to 533 in the past year, contributing to a steady incline since at least 2017.
Weapons violations are still cut in half from the immediate post-Covid years but increased from six in 2023-24 to nine this past year.
“Still a bit alarming,” Shifflett said. “It’s something I would say to students, ‘It’s an easy rule to follow. You don’t bring knives to school.’”
While heartened by improvements outlined in the data, school board members said Monday they want to know more. Members asked Shifflett to provide more detailed breakdowns of how many times students threatened schools and a grade-by-grade analysis of cellphone violations.
Cross also said he wants to look into putting vaping detectors in school bathrooms, a practice already employed by other area school divisions.
During Cross’s tenure as board chair, Rockingham County Public Schools also formed a student conduct committee. The school board heard 28 disciplinary cases last year, paying a closer mind to disputes over suspensions and expulsions.
Longer lunches?
The school board agreed to consider shifting five minutes of advisory time to tack onto lunch time after a Montevideo Middle School student presented a petition Monday night. With 100 signatures, she requested longer lunch times to improve student wellness and academic performance.
“Short lunch periods can cause skipped meals, stomachaches and low energy for the rest of the day,” the student said. “A longer lunch gives everyone a fair chance to eat, recharge and be ready to learn.”
Board members said they’re open to supporting the student’s request.
It’s “ridiculous” that it took a student petition to bring up this issue, board member Hollie Cave said. But Superintendent Larry Shifflett said it might require shifting instructional days.
Vice chair Ashley Burgoyne, who subbed in for chair Sara Horst, said her daughter has felt the squeeze of short lunch periods. When Burgoyne asked why she sat alone at lunch, she said, her daughter told her she watches the clock because she only has so much time to eat. Cave said she’s heard similar complaints, where long lunch lines can leave some students with less time to eat.
Field trip policy changes up for a vote
The school board also revisited potential policy changes that would require school-sponsored overnight field trips to include at least one chaperone of the same gender as the students in attendance. For example, if one or more girls were on a trip, at least one female chaperone would need to go with them, while a male chaperone would have to go if at least one boy was on the trip.
Lohr said that’s too difficult and asked to strike it from the proposal.
“That’s a real problem for them, is getting the recruitment of both sexes to come,” Lohr said. Most chaperones are women.
Cross pushed back.
“That’s a tough one for me to want to take out, coming from a law enforcement background,” Cross said. “I get what you’re saying, that it’s going to be a difficult task maybe in some cases, but there should be a male chaperone for our male students and a female chaperone for our female students. That’s where we’ve gotten in trouble in the past, when there’s not.”
He alluded to an incident from “not too long ago,” which he said is part of the reason the board is discussing a policy change, but Lohr said she doesn’t feel that requirement is necessary.
“There’s one incident that you’re referring to that I still don’t understand why you feel like it’s so important that there was a female or a male on that trip,” Lohr said. “I’ve been on over a hundred trips and have never seen that.”
Other changes would include a one-time background check for all overnight chaperones who aren’t school employees, plus an annual training
The board is set to vote on the proposal at its next meeting on Aug. 25.
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