School Board Makes Decision on Personal Device Use 

LUNENBURG – The issue and questions regarding a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy at Central High School were answered on Monday night at the Lunenburg School Board meeting after a decision was made by board members. The board decided to not allow personal devices to be used at school for the time being, but as soon as upcoming infrastructure work is completed, students would then be able to use personal tablets or laptops, but not cell phones, at school.

The Lunenburg County School Board had a big night last Monday, making decisions on BYOD concerns and also hearing about numerous projects and upgrades. LCPS Superintendent Charles Berkley (center) Chairman Barry Carnes and Vice Chairman Kathy Coffee are pictured.

This issue was recently brought up as some 12th grade students had asked school officials about bringing their own devices to school in order to use them for note taking or school related activities. The school policy on this issue at Central High School had been that no personal devices should be used or turned on during school instruction hours. However, the overall policy for the schools in general noted that students may be able to use their own devices in order to help with schoolwork, if directed by a teacher. Part of the decision on Monday night was to remove the wording in the policy that says “devices such as cell phones may be used if directed by a teacher.”

Instead, several teachers and administrators at the meeting noted that tablets and computer labs have been offered to any of the senior students needing to use them during school.

Mr. Berkley says that the committee formed to explore this issue met and had lengthy discussions about this topic. The group included parents, students, administrators, teachers and board members. The group came up with three options. Option one was to allow all students to use devices at school with no restrictions. Option two was to allow laptops and tablets to be used, but no cell phones or communication devices could be used during school. Option three was to eliminate the wording that was in the current policy noting that students could use the devices if instructed by teachers and to not allow any personal devices presently.

Mr. Berkley stated, “We had lots of responses and thoughts on this subject and after hearing the ideas from the committee, my suggestion would be to go with option three at the moment and as soon as the infrastructure upgrades are in place we would switch to option two for all students.”

Lunenburg was recently awarded an E Rate grant to help them cover the potentially high costs of upgrading technology to meet the anticipated demands of new technology needs.

Lunenburg was able to get over $127,000 to help with this upgrade and the schools will only pay a 20% match.

Once the upgrades are starting and in place over the next several months, it would be able to handle the increase in bandwidth that will likely come once additional students are using the wireless capabilities at the school.

Matthew Early, who is a computer technician with the schools, also spoke on the subject and discussed an additional problem on top of handling bandwidth issues. He stated, “Another problem is also the security risk that would be a factor right now.” He continued on to note that the system would need an upgraded firewall before opening it up to all devices.

Mr. Berkley noted that any students who do not have tablets issued through the school can get access to extra tablets or computer lab time in order to put information on jump drives and transfer that to their own devices at home. He continued on to say that the schools are in the process of needed upgrades and he along with others have put together the preliminary work for a BYOD policy that can be used once the E-Rate project is completed and students are allowed to bring personal devices used for note taking and research to school.

The school board unanimously voted to currently not allow any personal devices to be used during school hours, but to switch that policy to allow lap tops and tablets once the infrastructure is complete.