Will teens lose access to cellphones while at the high school?
The Chester school board is mulling a proposal that would restrict cellphone usage by students while in class at Chester High School.
The board, at its April 16 meeting, heard from Principal Melissa Blechle about a company called YONDR, which manufactures a pouch that cellphones can be locked in.
The pouches are magnetically locked and can only be unlocked by a device provided to the teachers. The cost is $20 per pouch, of which the proposal is that $15 would be charged to the students/parents and $5 would be covered by the school.
Students would not be forced to buy a pouch but if they do not they would be required to leave their phones at home or locked in their vehicles.
Discussion of this proposal will continue at the next board meeting.
Two new teachers hired at CGS
The Chester school board has hired a new kindergarten and new first-grade teacher, two of several personnel moves members made at their April 16 meeting.
Meghan Blechle is joining Chester Grade School as a new kindergarten teacher and Madison Wofford is on board has a new first-grade teacher.
In other personnel news, the board accepted resignations from Student Council sponsors Kristin Petrowske at the High School and Jenny Krantz at the grade school. Petrowske also was granted maternity leave from Sept. 6 through Oct. 31.
In the grade school office, Kim Gross was reassigned from a 10-month, seven-hour secretary to a nine-month, 7½-hour secretary; and Becky Phillips was reassigned from a nine-month, 7½-hour paraprofessional to a 10-month, seven-hour secretary. Neither of them will receive a change in their pay by these moves.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Colonel, Jake Golding, Jake Haberberger, Clay Herrell and Colin Wingerter were employed for the summer as custodial assistants at $8.25 an hour.
Crystal Vance is the new grade school track coach and Tony James is the new high school golf coach. Both of these positions are volunteer and were approved by the board.
Other business
The board approved a three-year bid from SWIBCO for bus service to the district. The contract calls for SWIBCO to receive $2.78 per mile for year one, $2.90 per mile for year two, and $3.05 per mile for year three.
The district will pay $21,250 to replace 85 school computers, but held up on spending $23,993 on two servers and backup files at the suggestion of board member Trevor Vasquez. Vasquez would like the district to look at contracting with a company which would store data off-site and possibly significantly reduce the cost for IT work and servers.
The high school entered a contract with Under Armour and will purchase sports uniforms from them until June 30, 2024. The school will receive rebates and discounts for their purchases.